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AT 



Mount Vernon on the Potomac 



James Hosmer Penniman, Litt. D. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

AT 

Mount Vernon on the Potomac 



TO GIVE A CLEARER IDEA OF THE CHARACTER 

OF WASHINGTON IS TO SET A HIGHER 

STANDARD FOR AMERICAN 

PATRIOTISM 



f^tjTB^rno-:^ fio^vne^ '/iv,^;^5,^ 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

MOUNT VERNON LADIES* ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION, 

MOUNT VERNON, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 



t.3 12- 



copyright: 

James H. Penniman 

1921 



@)CU622539 



TO THE REGENTS 

OF THE 

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 

MISS ANN PAMELA CUNNINGHAM 

MRS. LILY M. BERGHMAN 

MRS. JUSTINE VAN RENSSELAER TOWNSEND 

MISS HARRIET CLAYTON COMEGYS 



George Washington 

AT 

Mount Vernon on the Potomac 

James Hosmer Penniman, Litt.D. 

On the Potomac, a few miles below the city of 
Washington, has been standing for nearly two centuries 
a mansion which is a shrine of humanity, for Mount 
Vernon is more than a national memorial. Vessels 
from all parts of the world dip their colors and toll 
their bells as they pass the place, and distinguished 
pilgrims of many races lay wreaths at the tomb of 
him who devoted all he was and all he had to making 
freedom secure for mankind. 

George Washington, Mount Vernon, Potomac; 
what other three names can be found so closely asso- 
ciated and of such euphony and historic importance! 
There is no exaggeration in saying that Mount Vernon 
is the most famous home in the world. Nowhere else 
do we get so close to such an illustrious man. The 
mansions in which Washington lived as President, in 
New York and Philadelphia, have long ago been torn 
down, for there was no Ann Pamela Cunningham to 
protect them. At Cambridge, Harlem, Newburgh, 
Morristown and Valley Forge we are fortunate in having 
his headquarters still preserved, but in these places 
he was General Washington, Commander-in-Chief. It 
is at Mount Vernon alone that Washington comes down 
from his heroic pedestal and reveals himself to us in 
the majestic simplicity of the Virginia farmer, the 
Cincinnatus of the West. Soldiers of both sides remem- 



bered only that they were Americans as they stood at 
the tomb of the great American during that fratricidal 
war which would have caused him so much grief. Sec- 
tional feeling has no place at the home of this Virginian, 
who became the first American in every sense of the 
word first. The expression "First in war, first in peace, 
and first in the hearts of his countrymen," falls glibly 
enough from our lips, but at Mount Vernon one should 
ponder on these words and consider in how many ways 
this great man was first. "First in war," he was always 
the central figure during the eight years of the Revolu- 
tion, but even before he was Commander-in-Chief he 
was first in war, as well as the first American, when he 
made what is considered the most eloquent speech in 
our history: "I will raise a thousand men at my own 
expense and march at their head to the relief of Boston." 
March Virginians to the relief of Boston! Show me 
if you can an earlier expression of more practical Amer- 
icanism. How did he know that he could get those 
men.'* Because he was assured of the devotion and 
patriotism of his neighbors, to many of whom he was 
always the widow Washington's boy "George." How 
Washington's heart warmed to those riflemen at Cam- 
bridge when they told him they were from the right 
bank of the Potomac! At Mount Vernon, where Wash- 
ington was pre-eminently "First in Peace," the old 
weather-vane which surmounts his mansion is appro- 
priately the dove bearing the olive branch. 

Washington was not common clay, nor is Mount 
Vernon common earth. He could not have been such 
a patriot if he had not loved the place so much, because 
affection for the actual ground and wood and stone 
of the home is the most natural foundation of love of 
country. 

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, incor- 
porated in 1856, is the oldest patriotic organization of 

6 



women in the United States. Until Mount Vernon 
came into its possession the estate had had no other 
owners but Washingtons. The far-seeing founder of 
the Association, Ann Pamela Cunningham, who held 
the office of Regent for twenty years, wrote in 1874: 

"Ladies, the home of Washington is in your charge; 
see to it that you keep it the home of Washington. 
Let no irreverent hand change it; no vandal hands 
desecrate it with the fingers of progress! Those who 
go to the home in which he lived and died, wish to 
see in what he lived and died! Let one spot in this 
grand country of ours be saved from change! Upon 
you rests this duty. When the Centennial comes, 
bringing with it its thousands from the ends of the 
earth, to whom the home of Washington will be the 
place of places in our country, let them see that, though 
we slay our forests, remove our dead, pull down our 
churches, remove from home to home till the hearth- 
stone seems to have no resting-place in America — let 
them see that we do know how to care for the home 
of our Hero!" 

Wisely directed energy, unselfish devotion, and 
reverent patriotism—these conspicuous qualities of Wash- 
ington have been manifested in an eminent degree by 
the Ladies of Mount Vernon in making permanent for 
us his hallowed shrine. Long continued and loving 
care is everywhere evident, but the extent of the work 
has been carefully concealed. Nothing is offensively 
new, and this is remarkable, because it has been neces- 
sary to do 80 much. When the ladies acquired the 
property the estate was run down and the mansion was 
nearly empty. Edward Everett said in 1858: "No one 
who has visited the venerable spot — who has looked 
upon the weather-beaten building and its uninviting 
approaches, upon the falling columns and corroded 



pavement of the portico, the ruinous offices, the un- 
floored summer-house; the conservatory, of which a 
portion remains as it was left by the fire of 1832; the 

'spot where once a garden smiled. 

And still where many a garden flower grows wild,' 

the ground relapsing into the roughness of nature; and, 
above all, the raw incompleteness, the irreverent ex- 
posure, and the premature and untidy decay that reign 
about the tomb — but must bid God-speed to the efforts 
of these noble women and their worthy sisters in every 
part of the land, who have determined that this public 
scandal, this burning shame, shall cease." The mansion 
and its surrounding buildings were uninhabitable. The 
roof of the portico had to be held up by temporary 
props throughout its entire length. The barn had not 
been roofed since the time of Washington, the roads 
were impassable, and the whole estate was a chaotic 
ruin. The two rules of the Mount Vernon Ladies were: 
no debts and do thoroughly whatever is to be done; 
and, so carefully were these observed, that in 1890 the 
Secretary of the Association was able to refer to "the 
little band of women who have quietly worked through 
all these years, and who have learned that woman's 
lesson is to 'sit and wait.' As we have 'waited' we have 
seen our beloved Mount Vernon grow in grace and 
beauty slowly but surely — here a nail and there a brick, 
to-day a bit of pavement, to-morrow a road, now a 
fence, again a roof — until now! Now, every ruin is 
gone, every building restored." 

Reassembling the original furniture and relics is, 
to my mind, the most wonderful of all the things that 
the Ladies of Mount Vernon have done. They have 
made the mansion a museum of priceless treasures, and 
it is the duty of patriotic Americans to see to it that 
everything that used to be at Mount Vernon is returned 

8 



there. A further idea of the extraordinary work of the 
ladies may be formed from the following instances of 
it: To prevent landslides, which caused anxiety even 
in Washington's time, the hill has been tunnelled and 
twenty thousand gallons of water a day are drawn off. 
Washington remarked that the Mount Vernon land 
has "an understratum of hard clay impervious to water, 
which, penetrating that far and unable to descend lower, 
sweeps off the upper soil." Washington was anxious 
about the possibility of fire at Mount Vernon, and that 
his fears were not without cause is shown by an entry 
in his diary, January 5, 1788: "About 8 o'clock in the 
evening we were alarmed, and the house a good deal 
endangered by the soot of one of the chimneys taking 
fire and burning furiously, discharging great flakes of 
fire on the roof; but, happily, by having aid at hand and 
proper exertion no damage ensued." He wrote his 
overseer: "I beg you will make my people (about the 
Mansion house) be careful of the fire; for it is no un- 
common thing for them to be running from one house 
to another in cold, windy nights with sparks of fire 
flying and dropping as they go along, without paying 
the least attention to the consequences." The Ladies 
of Mount Vernon have taken every precaution to make 
the mansion as secure from fire as a wooden structure 
can be. The buildings are warmed by the hot water 
system, and the mains come from a remote underground 
boiler-room. Mr. Edison himself directed the low 
voltage lights. Chemical and steam fire engines are 
ready for instant use, and guards maintain a constant 
vigil. Powerful electric pumps supply water from an 
artesian well and there is sanitary drainage. The 
marsh of twelve acres, malaria from which made it 
necessary for the Washingtons to consume much Pe- 
ruvian bark, has been made a meadow fifled with clover, 
and the river has been excluded and the shores protected 

9 



from erosion by a sea wall. In order to get bricks 
mellowed by age for the haha wall, they were brought 
from the ruins of another old mansion. Flagstones 
have been imported from the quarries of Lord Lonsdale, 
at St. Bees Head, near White Haven, England, whence 
Washington obtained the original stones, and an extra 
supply was secured to provide for future needs. 

Well might the Ladies of Mount Vernon adopt 
Washington's motto, Exitus acta probat, for the result 
has proved the excellence of their deeds. I have visited 
many of the show places of the world, and I do not 
know another where good taste has been so combined 
with business efficiency. There is abundant elegance 
and refinement, but the predominant impression is that 
everything is intended to serve a useful purpose and 
is adequate for the work. Mount Vernon does not 
look, as so many old places do, as if it had outUved its 
usefulness, and in fact its usefulness will always be of 
the highest order. Without the noble deeds which 
were planned here the beautiful buildings of our national 
capital would never have existed, and those who see 
the work of our government going on at Washington 
will always find patriotic inspiration in visiting the 
home of the man who, more than any other, set these 
mighty forces at work. 

When one's mind has become steeped in cosmopoli- 
tan ideas by a protracted stay in Europe, there is 
nothing which will restore him to wholesome American- 
ism more thoroughly than a few hours at Mount Vernon. 
Nowhere can Emerson's tumultuous privacy of storm 
be employed to better advantage, for on a stormy day 
visitors are few and you may examine the relics at your 
leisure. You will get closer to George Washington and 
to the old life of the place when you are almost alone, 
but you do not know Mount Vernon until you have 

10 



seen it in rain and in sunshine, in winter and in summer, 
in the morning and with the lengthening shadows of 
the afternoon. The mansion is kept in such perfect 
condition that it gives no indication of having endured 
the storms of so many years. Yet you are surrounded 
by the atmosphere of the eighteenth century, that age 
of silk stockings, lace cuffs, powdered hair and stately 
manners, so that one almost expects to see Lady Wash- 
ington drive up with her coach and four. Life at Mount 
Vernon, though simple, was in the grand style; and 
the mansion, too, is simple, but with an air of elegance 
to a certain extent its own, for it is not entirely derived 
from its association with its illustrious proprietor. The 
seclusion of Mount Vernon imparts distinction. You 
cannot take it at unawares; you must approach it as 
you would some stately personage. The mansion is 
unique in situation as well as in design. There is no 
more eligible site in the whole course of the beautiful 
Potomac, and I have never seen a building which re- 
sembled it. Exquisite in itself merely as a beautiful 
old villa, it is superb in what one can think into it if 
he has the creative imagination to restore the past. 

Though rich in memories, they are all noble; there 
is no skeleton in the closet and no ghost. Listen to 
what the old house has to tell you, for it is silently elo- 
quent. As you walk through these rooms you are 
turning the pages of history. No other private resi- 
dence in the world is so permeated with the annals of 
a great nation, and its associations are all the result of 
the life work of one great man. In the importance of 
the deliberations and of the anxious thought given here 
to the most vital interests of our country and of man- 
kind. Mount Vernon ranks with Carpenters and In- 
dependence Halls. Here the ablest men came to confer 
with Washington. In the library he drafted historic 

11 



documents and wrote hundreds of letters of the utmost 
importance to our country. It adds interest to the 
reading of a letter of Washington to be able to picture 
him as he wrote it in his library. When you read 
his letters you get close to the man himself, as if you 
grasped that mighty hand and looked into those brave, 
blue eyes. 

At Mount Vernon was good Hving, in all the senses of 
the words. There were good thoughts, good compan- 
ions, good books and good dinners. Stevenson might 
have been describing Mount Vernon when he wrote — 

"Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, 
A bin of wine, a spice of wit, 
A house with lawns inclosing it, 
A living river by the door." 

Though the Great House was remote from the main 
road, far within his own domains, Washington wrote, 
"Captain Johnson comes past my door in his ship." So 
Washington Hved in a house by the side of the road to the 
Old World, and he was a friend to man. 

The tranquil river, bending in great curves and like 
a long mirror reflecting the light for miles, gave the same 
dignity and grace to the landscape when he gazed lov- 
ingly upon it from the shade of his own vine and fig- 
tree, but the glory of the historic past now radiates from 
the stream, as if it was proud of its association with 
Washington. He was famihar with the varied sections 
whence came every drop that flows past his home, for 
in his mind he could follow the river beyond its Great 
Falls and Harpers Ferry all the way to its source, and in 
his youth he made many surveys along its beautiful 
tributary, the Shenandoah. The problems of the utihza- 
tion of the Potomac occupied much of the time and 
thought of his later years. On its banks he was born and 
died. It flows past the beautiful city which bears his 

12 



name, and circles his sky-piercing monument, which over- 
looks so many miles of its course. The waves of the 
Potomac kiss the shores of his home and murmur their 
perpetual requiem about his tomb. 

We must visit Mount Vernon to know the real 
Washington, and, to know him as we ought, we should 
visit it many times and read and re-read his works, for 
the more we know of Washington the more we appre- 
ciate his home. There have been thousands of books 
written about Washington, but the best will always be 
those he wrote himself, and these are the ones which are 
read the least. We should hear less about the hatchet 
and the cherry-tree and other myths, and we should be 
better Americans if we read as much as we can of what 
Washington himself has written; for, in so doing, we not 
only become acquainted with the first American, but we 
also learn how our country was made a nation. How 
little the average visitor knows of the life of Washington 
is evidenced by the frequent request at Mount Vernon 
to be shown the room in which he was born. Few re- 
member that Washington, as his father had done before 
him, saw the light at Wakefield, on the Potomac, fifty miles 
below Mount Vernon. Nine out of ten of the hundreds 
of biographers, including Sparks and Irving, state that 
soon after the birth of George his family removed to an 
estate opposite Fredericksburg; but the Vestry Book of 
Pohick Church states: November 18, 1735, Augustine 
Washington, the father of George, was sworn in as ves- 
tryman and attended meetings August 18, 1736, August 
13, 1737, and October 3, 1737, after which his name does 
not appear. It is thus clear that at this time the family 
resided at Hunting Creek, as Mount Vernon was then 
called. Augustine Washington was marked absent from 
vestry meetings held October 11, 1736, and April 12, 
1737. I am able to explain his absence by something 

13 



\\ 



which has not hitherto been noted, which throws much 
light on this important period about which we have 
known so Httle. In the Boston Athenaeum is a book 
called "A Complete View of the British Customs." It 
contains a list of the several ports and creeks of Great 
Britain, the lawful keys, wharfs, etc., and fees payable. 
On the fly-leaf is written "Augustine Washington his 
Book bought ye 4th of May 1737 of ye Booksellers under 
ye Royal Exchange. Cost 7 Shillings." If this book 
could talk it would doubtless tell us that George Wash- 
ington's father commanded and owned a ship in which he 
carried the productions of Mount Vernon to England, 
and in a previous voyage he probably brought back the 
bricks for the barn, the only existing building which 
dates from this period. Excellent bricks were made in 
Virginia, and a few years later we shall see that sixteen 
thousand of them were baked for the underpinning of 
Mount Vernon. That the tobacco ships came back 
ballasted with brick and stone shows that the colonists 
were too poor to import much from the mother country. 
The house occupied by Augustine Washington and his 
family was burned in 1739. The fact that there is a 
well in the cellar of the present mansion leads me to be- 
lieve that the original house occupied the same site, for 
the well must have been intended for use in case of an 
attack by Indians. By a deed recorded in October, 1740, 
Augustine Washington conveyed to his son Lawrence 
the 2500 acres of land at Hunting Creek, which was later 
called Mount Vernon. In August, 1740, Lawrence Wash- 
ington embarked to join Admiral Vernon in the West 
Indies. He did not return until the spring of 1743, and 
on the 19th of July was married to Anne Fairfax. It is 
difficult to understand how Lawrence could have given 
attention to the building of the original central part of 
the mansion at this time, and it seems more reasonable to 
attribute its construction to the loving care of Augustine 

14 




for his son, who was to be married as soon as his military 
service was over, and to suppose that Augustine alluded 
to these facts when he had cut on the corner stone the 
initials L. W. with the heart and the military axes. 
Augustine died April 28, 1743. His will was executed 
April 11th, and was presented for probate by Lawrence 
May 6th following. It begins: "I Augustine Washington 
of the County of King George — Gentleman being sick 
and weak but of perfect and disposing sence and mem- 
ory;" and the first provision gives Lawrence "the land at 
Hunting Creek with the water mill adjoining and all the 
Slaves, Cattle and Stocks and all the Household Furna- 
ture whatsoever now in and upon or which have been 
commonly possessed by my said son." The words "which 
have been commonly possessed by my said son" should 
be carefully pondered over, as they seem to throw light 
on this important but obscure period in the history of 
the mansion. 

When Lawrence called his estate Mount Vernon 
he not only showed his affection for his old chief, Ad- 
miral Vernon, but also that loyalty to England which 
caused the people of Alexandria to name their streets 
King, Prince, Duke, Royal, Queen, Princess, Duchess. 
The construction of the Great House went on at in- 
tervals during most of George Washington's life, nor 
did he consider it finished when he died. Augustine, 
Lawrence and George were probably its only architects. 
George was always fond of drawing plans and would 
have been as good an architect as he was surveyor. 
You may restore the house to its condition in Lawrence's 
time by, in your imagination, removing the portico, 
the colonnades, the third story, the banquet hall, the 
library, and replacing with a few cabins all the out- 
buildings except the barn. The mansion will be left 
about one-third of its present size, with two stories and a 
garret with gable roof and dormer windows. There 

15 



were four rooms on each floor, a small porch at the front 
door and chimneys at each end built inside. Lawrence 
died at Mount Vernon, July 26, 1752, aged thirty-four. 
That what is now called the old tomb was constructed 
about this time is made clear by the first provision in 
his will — "that a proper vault for Interment be made 
on my home plantation wherein my remains together 
with my three children may be decently placed, and 
to serve for my wife and such other of the family as 
may desire it." The four children of Lawrence, all of 
whom died young, were doubtless born at Mount Ver- 
non, and three of them are buried there. 

The death of Lawrence changed the life of George, 
for Lawrence had been a second father to him, and 
had done much to give him that education which is 
derived from association with good men and good books. 
Lawrence kept him at Mount Vernon when it was 
possible, and in his latter days endeared himself to 
George by his resignation and by his patient endurance 
of suffering. "My loving brother George Washington" 
was left one of his executors, and at the death of Law- 
rence's daughter and only surviving child. Baby Sarah, 
which occurred in September at the age of one year, 
George inherited Mount Vernon, subject to a life interest 
in favor of the widow of Lawrence. George had to 
pay her fifteen thousand pounds of tobacco yearly. 
This was about all the estate at that time produced. 
The annuity might be paid in money at the rate of 12 
shillings 6 pence per hundred weight, and would thus 
amount to £93 15s. The widow of Lawrence died in 1761. 

In October, 1754, George Washington resigned 
his military command of the Virginia forces and retired 
to Mount Vernon, where he remained till he set out 
with General Brad dock, who had arrived with a strong 
force from England. Two men-of-war, the Nightingale 

16 



and the Seahorse, escorted his sixteen transports. We 
do not know whether Washington mounted his horse 
and rode down the river to see the British ships come 
up, or whether he had the patience to wait till one 
after another they appeared round the point; but we 
may be sure that the officers gathered in little groups 
on the decks to gaze on the mansion of the Virginia 
colonel who the year before had fired that shot which 
Thackeray says wakened "a war which was to last 
for sixty years and which was to cover his own country 
and pass into Europe, to cost France her American 
colonies, to sever ours from us, and create the great 
Western Republic; to rage over the Old World when 
extinguished in the New; and, of all the myriads engaged 
in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the greatest 
fame with him who struck the first blow!" April 2, 
1755, Washington wrote Captian Orme, one of Brad- 
dock's officers, at Alexandria: "The arrival of a good 
deal of company (among whom is my mother, alarmed 
at the report of my intentions to attend your fortunes) 
prevents me the pleasure of waiting upon you today." 
Washington first saw British regulars at Alexandria 
at this time, and, as he accompanied the expedition, 
made observations of them collectively and individually, 
which were of great value in our Revolution. 

Braddock left Alexandria April 20th. Washington 
wrote his mother from Camp at Will's Creek, June 7th: 
"I hope you will spendthechief part of your time at Mount 
Vernon, as you have proposed to do; where, I am 
certain, everything will be ordered as much for your 
satisfaction as possible, in the situation we are in there." 
Braddock's defeat, July 9th, near Fort Duquesne, now 
Pittsburg, by the French and Indians, is one of the 
most disastrous in history. Washington returned to 
Mount Vernon, July 26th, where he remained in a 

17 



weak and feeble condition. August 14th he was com- 
missioned commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, 
and he was for four years busy on the frontier, return- 
ing to Mount Vernon from time to time. In 1756, 
Washington wrote from Winchester asking for leave of 
absence to attend a meeting of executors of the estate 
of Lawrence in September at Alexandria, *as I am very 
deeply interested, not only as executor and heir of 
part of his estate, but also in a very important dispute 
subsisting between Colonel Lee, who married the widow, 
and my brothers and self, concerning a devise in the 
will, which brings the whole personal estate in question." 
In September, 1757, Washington came to Mount Vernon 
to the funeral of William Fairfax, of Belvoir, the father 
of Anne. In November, Washington returned to Mount 
Vernon in bad health and was attended by his physician, 
Charles Green, who was also rector of Pohick Church. 
March 4, 1758, Washington writes from Mount Vernon 
that he has been under the care of several physicians, 
and intends to set out for Williamsburg to consult the 
best doctors there. He returned to his command about 
the first of April. When Washington's approaching 
marriage made it necessary to enlarge his mansion, 
John Patterson writes him June 17, 1758, that he will 
take the roof oflF the house as soon as the carpenters 
get the laths to shingle on. July 13th, Patterson writes: 
"The Great House was rais** six days ago; sixteen 
thousand bricks have been burnt for the underpinning." 
July 14th, Colonel John Carlyle writes Washington that 
his house is now uncovered. August 13th, Patterson 
reports that the outside of the house is finished. Hum- 
phrey Knight writes Washington, August 24th, "The 
great house goes on as brisk as possible. The painter 
has been painting 3 days. Our carpenter is now getting 
laths to sheath ye great house." The repairs included 
new weather boards, closets, floors and a stairway to 

18 



the attic. It is not necessary to go into the extensive 
alterations and additions which were made at various 
times later, as they have been fully described by other 
writers. 

In December, 1758, Washington resigned his com- 
mission, and he did not take up the sword again until, in 
June, 1775, he was chosen commander-in-chief of the 
American armies. In January, 1759, he was married to 
Mrs. Martha Custis and stayed at his bride's estate, 
White House, in New Kent on the Pamunky, until the 
close of the session of the House of Burgesses in May, 
when the couple came to live at Mount Vernon. Both 
the White House and Mrs. Washington's other residence, 
the Six Chimney House in Williamsburg, were finer man- 
sions than Mount Vernon was at that time, but she cheer- 
fully made her home in the remote and humble dweUing 
of Colonel Washington. You may see at Mount Vernon 
a pincushion made of her wedding gown — white brocaded 
satin, threaded with silver. Washington wrote, 20 
September, 1759, from Mount Vernon: "I am now, I 
believe, fixed at this seat with an agreeable Consort for 
Life, and hope to find more happiness in retirement than 
I ever experienced amidst a wide and bustling world." 
This is the earUest expression of a thought which runs 
through his writings during the rest of his life, his enjoy- 
ment in the peaceful retirement of Mount Vernon; but, in 
view of his strenuous experiences when General and 
President, Washington must have smiled if he recalled 
how little he knew at twenty-seven about the "wide and 
bustling world." 

For sixteen years before the Revolution Washington 
led the kind of life he always wished. His earliest daily 
record at .Mount Vernon begins January 1, 1760, and 
states that on his return from visiting his plantations he 
found Mrs. Washington broke out with the measles. 
"January 2d Mrs. Barnes who came to visit Mrs. Wash- 

19 



ington yesterday returned home in my chariot, the 
weather being too bad to travel in an open carriage — 
which, together with Mrs. Washington's indisposition 
confined me to the House and gave me an opportunity 
of posting my books and putting them in good order. 
January 3d the weather continuing bad and ye same 
causes subsisting I confined myself to the house . . . 

several of the Family were taken with the 

measles . . . Hauled the sein and got some fish, but 
was near being disappointed of my boat by means of an 
oyster man who had lain at my landing and plagued me a 
good deal by his disorderly behavior." I wish I could 
give the whole diary. Read it if you would have an 
idea of life at old Mount Vernon. 

All his life Washington was an outdoor man. He 
was conceded to be the best horseman in Virginia. Be- 
fore the Revolution he rode a hunting two or three times 
a week with neighbors and guests, and the mellow baying 
of the long-eared hounds, the distant horn and the view 
halloo, resounded from field and wood as the hunt swept 
on. When after foxes, sometimes the hounds would 
start a deer. Bears were seen near Mount Vernon as 
late as 1772. In November, 1785, Thomas Hunter saw 
thousands of ducks within gun shot and also wild geese 
and turkeys. The wild turkeys sometimes weighed 
thirty or forty pounds. Before the Revolution we find 
Washington ordering for himself "a pair of crimson 
velvet breeches, a pair of double campaigners (boots), 
a gentleman's hunting cap covered with black velvet to 
fit a pretty large head, cushioned round or stuffed to 
make it sit easy thereon, a silk band and handsome sil- 
ver buckle to it, one best whole hunting whip, pretty 
stout and strong, caped with silver and my name en- 
graved thereon. A riding frock of a handsome drab 
coloured broad cloth with plain double gilt buttons, a 
riding waistcoat of superior scarlet cloth and gold lace 

20 



with buttons like those of the coat. A large and loud 
hunting horn, laped and secured in the strongest man- 
ner.'* Washington went to many horse races, and tells 
us that on one occasion he went to a boat race on the 
Potomac. He records that he made a fishing trip on his 
schooner that lasted for several days. At night he slept 
on the boat or at the house of friends on the shore. Wash- 
ington and his neighbors on the Potomac had barges 
manned by negroes in uniform. Among his orders from 
England were "a whale boat, long narrow sharp at both 
ends, and one dozen neat and light 18 feet oars for a 
hght whale boat, the blades scooped and painted." Mr. 
Digges was a wealthy planter, whose estate, Warburton, 
could be seen across the Potomac in Maryland. At a 
signal his barge and that of Washington would meet in 
the middle of the river and transfer passengers. Wash- 
ington had also a ferry boat in which carriages and horses 
were "put over" the Potomac. In 1785 Mrs. Macaulay 
Graham, an English authoress, came to America with 
her husband for the sole purpose of seeing Washington. 
Her history of England in eight volumes is forgotten, but 
the ten days they spent at Mount Vernon Washington 
has commemorated in his diary. He says: "At seven 
o'clock on the morning of June 14th I accompanied them 
to Mr. Digges's to which place I had her carriage and 
horses put over." When Captain John Smith came up 
the Potomac in 1608 it was so full of fish that he states 
that he killed them with his sword. In Washington's 
time hundreds of shad and thousands of herring were 
taken at Mount Vernon by means of seines drawn in by 
a windlass turned by horses. 

Washington described Mount Vernon as follows: 
"No estate in the United States is more pleasantly 
situated. In a high and healthy country, in a latitude 
between the extremes of heat and cold, on one of the 
finest rivers in the world, a river well stocked with 

21 



various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year, 
and in the spring with shad, herring, bass, carp, 
sturgeon, etc., in great abundance. The borders 
of the estate are washed by more than ten miles 
of tidewater; several valuable fisheries appertain to it. 
The whole shore, in fact, is one vast fishery." The 
estate was divided into Mansion House Farm, River 
Farm, Union Farm, Muddy Hole Farm, Dogue Run 
Farm. The trolley line crosses the River Farm before 
reaching Hunting Creek. There are some thirty build- 
ings at Mount Vernon, among which are the kitchen, 
connected with the mansion by an arcade, servants' 
quarters, butler's house, gardener's house, store house, 
smoke house, wash house, stable, coach house, barns, 
salt house, carpenter shop, spinning house, where sixteen 
wheels were kept going, green house, spring house, milk 
house, and an ice house which in mild winters was filled 
with snow . It was built when ice houses were curiosities, 
for nearly every one hung butter and milk down the well 
or kept them in a spring house. 

In his will Washington describes himself as "George 
Washington of Mount Vernon, a. citizen of the United 
States." I will not comment on this important state- 
ment further than to suggest that it offers food for 
thought by what it omits, no less than by what it includes. 
Washington was never really happy away from Mount 
Vernon. After the Revolution he wrote: "Agriculture 
has ever been the most favorite amusement of my life." 
In 1785 a visitor to Mount Vernon stated that Washing- 
ton's greatest pride was to be thought the first farmer in 
America. That combination of accurate knowledge of 
human nature and untiring industry which made him a 
great commander made him also a great farmer. He was 
master of the art of turning his circumstances to the best 
account. At Mount Vernon there was no want, because 
there was no waste when the master was there. Though 

22 



he was a liberal contributor to churches, schools and pri- 
vate charities, Washington was economical both of time 
and money. He kept in books, in his own writing, lists ol' 
all articles ordered and copies of the receipts for them. 
He kept daybooks, ledgers and letter books and drew up 
contracts, leases and deeds with minute legal knowledge. 
Before the Revolution he employed no secretary, and the 
mass of his correspondence and other writing added con- 
siderably to his many tasks. He was always accurately 
informed with regard to the production of each field, the 
market value of his crops, the physical condition of work- 
ers and of live stock and the daily amount of work done 
by each. In farming and in landscape gardening the 
element of time is an important factor. Washington 
planned his work ahead for as much as three years. He 
was an expert judge of the quality of land. He rested 
old fields, sowed clover, timothy and other grasses for 
hay and for enriching the soil, and rotated his crops in the 
most scientific manner of his time. He made roads, cleared 
and fenced fields, stopped washouts and drained bogs 
and dug ditches. He wrote his overseer: "Whenever you 
have leisure to do it, it would be serviceable by way of 
stopping the progress of that gully at the mouth of the 
lane, at Mansion house — and indeed all others — to drive 
stakes across and retain the trash that is swept down with 
the torrent. They also serve to break the force of the 
water; and by degrees, with other assistance, fill them up. 
The gullies I mean, without these obstructions, the de- 
scending water from very heavy rains sweep all before 
it." "To introduce system, and a regular course of 
crops; to introduce grass where, and when proper; to 
make meadows and hedges, to recover my fields from 
the exhausted, and gullied state in which many of them 
are; to improve my stock, and to get into a way of es- 
tablishing large dairies, and turning that stock to profit- 
able uses and to make much hay which will always be in 

23 



demand, and command a good price; are much more 
desirable objects with me than to push the best of my 
fields, out of their regular course with a view to increase 
the next or any other year's crops of grain. I know full 
well that by picking and culling the fields I should be able 
for a year or two to make larger crops of grain; but I 
know also that by so doing I shall in a few years make 
nothing and find my land ruined." ** Immediate profit 
is not so much an object with me as the restoration of 
worn out and gullied fields; bringing them in condition to 
bear grass, reclaiming and laying swamps to meadovr, 
making live fences and ornamenting the grounds about 
the Mansion House." "I shall begrudge no reasonable ex- 
pense that will contribute to the improvement and neat- 
ness of my farms; for nothing pleases me better than to 
see them in good order, and everything trim, handsome 
and thriving about them." 

During the most trying times of the war he 
wrote Lund Washington, who was his overseer and 
whose home was at Hayfield four miles northwest 
of Mount Vernon, a long weekly letter. These letters 
have never been published, but the letters written 
to his overseers when he was President add greatly to 
our knowledge of the character of Washington and of his 
methods of doing business. "You must be governed by 
circumstances and your own view of the case; with this 
caution, not to undertake in this, or in anything else, 
more than you can accomplish well, recollecting always, 
that a thing but half done is never done ; and well done, 
is, in a manner done for ever." "To correct the abuses 
which have crept into all parts of my business — to ar- 
range it properly, and to reduce things to system; will 
require, I am sensible, a good deal of time and your ut- 
most exertions; of the last from the character you bear, 
I entertain no doubt; the other, I am wiUing to allow, 
because I had rather you should probe things to the bot- 

24 



torn, whatever time it may require to do it, than to de- 
cide hastily upon the first view of them, as to establish 
good rules, and a regular system, is the life and the soul 
of every kind of business." Washington writes his over- 
seer that nothing is more interesting to him than hedging. 
On the way back to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon in 
October, 1795, he says he observed all the hedges about 
Christiana, and from there to Wilmington. "I agree to 
your taking up the young Cedars along the Creek side, 
and transplanting them in the lane as you propose; and 
am glad to find you managed the Cedar berries in the 
manner you have mentioned ; they certainly will make a 
good hedge ; and are a tree of quick growth. " "No hedge, 
alone, will, I am persuaded, do for an outer inclosure, 
where two or four footed hogs find it convenient to open a 
passage." "There is nothing which has relation to my 
farms, not even the crops of grain, that I am so solici- 
tous about as getting my fields enclosed with live fences." 
In 1789, Tobias Lear wrote that there were employed 
at Mount Vernon more than two hundred and fifty 
hands. The farms were not under the direction of over- 
seers at that time, but were superintended by the General 
himself, who never failed visiting each of them every day 
unless the weather was absolutely stormy. Twenty- 
four plows were kept going at all times in the year when 
it was profitable for a plow to stir; "we have this spring 
already (March 30) put into the ground 600 bushels of 
oats, we have in wheat upwards of 700 acres, as much 
more prepared for corn, barley, potatoes, peas, beans, 
etc., near 500 acres in grass and shall sow this summer 150 
acres of turnips. We have 140 horses, 112 cows, 235 
working oxen, steers and heifers and 500 sheep — this is 
farming to some purpose — we carry on all the trades 
which are necessary for the support of those farms within 
ourselves — the seat and its offices resemble a little village, 
we have carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, blacksmiths, a 

25 



taylor and a shoemaker all of whom are as constantly 
employed in their several occupations as they are in the 
largest cities — but notwithstanding all this appearance 
of income, we are obliged to live at so great an expense 
that it brings in no profit — almost the whole of the pro- 
duce is consumed within ourselves — the negroes are not 
treated as blacks in general, they are clothed and fed as 
well as any laboring people whatever and they are not 
subject to the lash of a domineering overseer." 

The trades carried on included carpentering, black- 
smithing, wagon-making, coopering, shipbuilding, brick - 
making, masonry, tanning, shoemaking, harness- 
making, milling, distilling, tailoring, spinning, weaving 
and knitting. Washington had his own quarry and 
made Hme by burning oyster shells brought in boats 
from Alexandria. Timber for joists, rafters and boards 
was hewn by hand, and the carpenters, when they had 
time in bad weather, made houses which were taken 
in parts to Alexandria and put up there. Washington 
records that two hundred days were spent in building 
a schooner, and smaller boats were also built. Before 
the Revolution tools, paints and many other requisites 
for the constant improvements and repairs were ordered 
from England. Charcoal was made for the blacksmith 
shop, and Peter, the colored blacksmith, helped in the 
construction of plows. Harrows, rakes, wheels for 
carts and spinning-wheels and other utensils were also 
made. Washington went to great pains to procure or 
to make from the best patterns, not infrequently in 
accordance with his own original ideas, the best ma- 
chinery and tools. One of the first pumps in America 
was placed at Mount Vernon when the old oaken bucket, 
raised by a rope and windlass or by a long-balanced 
pole, was in general use elsewhere. In his diaries, 
Washington tells us of riding to his mill, helping in the 
construction of a plow, hauling the seine, posting his 

26 



books on rainy days and carefully preparing the orders 
from England. When he was at home he personally 
supervised all work and often assisted with his own 
hands. Washington rose early and did what would 
be a day's work for most people before breakfast. The 
full round of his plantations was about ten miles, and 
in summer he often rode it before breakfast, while in 
winter he would rise at four, light his fire and write by 
candlelight; only by this means was he able to keep 
his accounts posted and to attend to his letters. When 
the General arrived late for breakfast after a ride around 
hia farms, Mrs. Washington would join him and cheer 
him at the table. He breakfasted at seven in summer 
and eight in winter on fish, bacon, ham, eggs, corncakes, 
butter, honey, coff'ee or tea. Dinner was at three, later 
there was tea, and at nine the General retired. A visitor 
states: "The dinner was very good, a small roasted pig, 
boiled leg of lamb, roasted fowles, beef, peas, lettuce, 
qucumbers, artichokes, puddings, tarts, etc." In 1768, 
Washington wrote in his diary: "Would any one believe 
that with a hundred and one cows, actually reported at 
a late enumeration of the cattle, I should still be obliged 
to buy butter for my family?" He devoted much atten- 
tion to improving the breeds of sheep, hogs, cattle, 
dogs, horses and especially of mules. For breeding 
mules the King of Spain sent a jackass called Royal 
Gift, and Lafayette obtained another from Malta. 
Lafayette also sent hounds, Chinese pheasants and 
French partridges. June 25, 1786, Washington wrote: 
"Mr. Ogle of Maryland has been so obliging as to present 
to me six fawns from his park of English deer at Bellair. 
Of the forest deer of this country I have also procured 
six, two bucks and four does. With these, and tolerable 
care, I should soon have a full stock for my small pad- 
dock." In December, 1794, Washington wrote his 
overseer: "The gardener complains of the injury which 

27 



the shrubs (even in the yard) sustain from the deer. 
I am at a loss therefore in determining whether to give 
up the shrubs or the deer. Is there no way of frighten- 
ing them from these haunts?" 

In 1788, Gouverneur Morris offered a couple of Chi- 
nese pigs, "and in company with the pigs shall be sent a 
pair of Chinese geese, which are really the foolishest 
geese I ever beheld ; for they choose all times for setting 
but in the spring, and one of them is now (November) 
actually engaged in that business." Washington ac- 
cepted these "exotic animals" with thanks. 

Washington made Mount Vernon the first station 
of experimental agriculture in America, for there, aided 
by information which he received from frequent corre- 
spondence with learned agriculturahsts in Europe, he 
conducted numerous elaborate experiments on the nature 
of soils, fertilizers, seeds and the breeding of stock. 

My friend, Mr. John C. Fitzpatrick, of the Manu- 
script Division of the Library of Congress, calls my 
attention to the fact that, in the minuteness and com- 
pleteness of his records of the weather at Mount Vernon, 
Washington anticipated by many years the United 
States Weather Bureau. He noted in his diaries the 
state of the moon, the clouds, the direction of the 
wind, and the amount of rain, snow, frost and drought. 
January 8, 1785, is the first record of the temperature, 
and probably before that date he did not have a ther- 
mometer. From then on he recorded the temperature 
morning, noon and night, and when he was away, Mrs. 
Washington entered it for him. The highest record 
is 88°, and when the mercury went below 10° it retired 
into the ball, after which the cold could only be guessed 
at. Washington's thermometer is one of the interesting 
Mount Vernon relics. 

It is extraordinary how much Washington, who 
was the busiest man in America, did for his estate in 

28 



a lifetime, during large portions of which he was absent 
in the service of his country. With the art of a skill- 
ful landscape gardener, he improved the natural beau- 
ties of the place. He writes General Knox that, in the 
course of the conversation at Boston, he "was most in- 
terested by something which was said respecting the 
composition for a pubhc walk," and it has been sug- 
gested that perhaps the Lovers' Walk of Boston Com- 
mon was anticipated at Mount Vernon. On each side 
of the east lawn a grove of locusts extended to the 
river. Trees and shrubs were carefully trimmed to 
make a frame to the view of the Potomac, and care was 
taken to keep vistas open in every direction. The level 
lawn on the west front, with the wide serpentine walk 
shaded by weeping willows, the oval grass plot, the flower 
garden on one side and the kitchen garden on the other, 
are all laid out according to a plan drawn by Wash- 
ington himself and still unchanged. He paid great 
attention to his lawns, and the first order sent to 
England after his marriage includes "a large assortment 
of grass seed." Carefully trimmed box borders outhne 
the paths today exactly as in Washington's time, their 
dark green making the flower beds flame like stained- 
glass windows. Roses named by Washington for his 
mother and for Nelly Custis still bloom, together with 
yellow, damask, tea, and guilder roses. Old-fash- 
ioned flowers and plants are cherished — iris, sweet- 
wifliams, spice pinks, ivy, honeysuckle, lilacs and jas- 
mine. Mrs. Washington's active interest in the garden 
is indicated by this extract from a letter of her husband : 
"I have too, Mrs. Washington's particular thanks to 
offer you for the flower roots and seeds." 

No other hving things bring us so close to Washington 
as some of the trees of Mount Vernon, for they were 
planted by him, and on them his eyes have rested with 
long and loving gaze. Like Cicero's dihgent farmer, he 

29 



cared for them, knowing that he himself would never reap 
the benefit. To see his trees and plants rising from the 
earth and flourishing filled Washington's mind with 
thoughts which he said it was easier to imagine than 
to express. The degree of civilization of a nation, as 
well as of an individual, is shown by the care and culture 
of its trees, and those who have neglected and destroyed 
them have been punished by penalites which, though 
slow, have been sure. Washington studied as well as he 
could the economic value of forests and the ornamental 
properties of trees, but the technical aspects of forestry, 
such as reforestration, the relation of forests to mois- 
ture and rain fall, water supply, climate and public 
health were not so well understood in his time as they 
are now. The following books on trees were in Wash- 
ington's library: "The Orchardist: or a System of close 
Pruning and Medication," by Thomas Bucknall; a 
pamphlet by John Robinson, Surveyor-General of 
Woods and Forests, London, 1794, "On the state of 
waste lands and common fields of Great Britain" ; "The 
American Grove," Humphry Marshall, Philadelphia, 
1785; an alphabetical catalogue of trees and shrubs of the 
United States, with description of their appearance, 
manner of growth and hints of their uses in medicine, 
dyes and domestic economy. Professor Sargent informs 
me that this is the first book on botany written by an 
American. In 1917, Professor Sargent thought that 
there were fifty-seven trees which had been planted by 
Washington. In his book, the study of which adds 
interest to the visit to Mount Vernon, Professor Sargent 
says: "Three yellow poplars were undoubtedly planted 
under Washington's personal direction. ' ' Seven buckeye- 
trees grown from seeds, gathered by him in what is 
now West Virginia, have red, pink, and flesh-colored 
flowers on different individuals. Trees with flowers of 
these colors exist at Mount Vernon alone. The mag- 

30 



nolia planted by Washington is the most famous tree 
at Mount Vernon. Three hemlocks planted by him 
still remain. Three box trees probably planted by him 
are among the handsomest and most interesting trees. 
Washington wished to have perfect specimens of 
every tree that would grow at Mount Vernon. He per- 
sonally superintended the selection of the most beautiful 
from the neighboring woods, and watched them with care 
until it was clear that the transplanting was successful. 
He arranged them symmetrically, and mingled forest 
trees, flowering shrubs and evergreens so as to produce 
the most agreeable effect. Washington writes, January 
27, 178.5: "Went to Belvoir and viewed the ruined build- 
ings of that place. In doing this I passed along the side 
of Dogue Creek and the river to the White House in 
search of elm and other trees for my shrubberies and 
found none of the former but discovered one fringe 
tree and a few crab trees in the first field beyond my 
line — and in returning home, which I did to dinner, I 
found several young holly trees." The next day he 
says: "Rode today to my plantations in the Neck — 
partly with a view to search for trees for which purpose 
I passed through the woods and in the first drain beyond 
the bars in my lower pasture, I discovered in tracing it 
upwards, many small and thriving plants of the mag- 
nolia and about and within the fence not far distant, 
some young maple trees and the red berry of the swamp. 
I also along the Branch within Col. Mason's field came 
across a mere nursery of young crab trees of all sizes 
and handsome and thriving, and along the same branch 
on the outer side of the fence I discovered several young 
holly trees. But whether from the real scarcity or 
difficulty of distinguishing I could find none of the fringe 
tree." Exotic plants were cultivated with care by 
Washington. Amariah Frost wrote, 1797: "We viewed 
the gardens and walks, which are very elegant, abound- 

31 



ing with many curiosities, fig-trees, raisins, limes, 
oranges, large English mulberries, artichokes, etc." 

In what he called his Botanical Garden between the 
flower-garden and the spinner's house, Washington car- 
ried on much of his investigation. The nurseries, 
gardens and greenhouse were filled with choice collec- 
tions of rare plants, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. 
To do this was not easy at a time when means of com- 
munication and transportation were almost primitive, 
but admirers in all parts of the world knew that the best 
way to please the most distinguished man in the world 
was to send him a choice plant or animal for his estate. 
Washington's favorite Bible quotation about the shade 
of his own vine and fig-tree was not entirely a figure 
of speech, for fig-trees were trained on the warm side 
of the north garden wall, and he paid much attention to 
the cultivation of grapes. They are frequently men- 
tioned. We read, for instance, that the French minister, 
Luzerne, sent vines, diff'erent kinds "of the most valu- 
able eating grapes in France." It is not in accordance 
with his character that the story by which Washington 
is most widely known represents him as wantonly de- 
stroying a cherry-tree. In later years he wrote: "It 
is always in one's power to cut a tree down, but time 
only can place them where one would have them." 
All Washington's life he was acting in accordance with 
the sentiment which later was expressed by Sir Walter 
Scott, who did for Abbotsford what Washington did for 
Mount Vernon — "When ye hae naithing else to do, 
ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, 
when ye're sleeping." The passages in Washington's 
letters and diaries, in which he speaks of his trees, would 
make a book of considerable size. For years his diaries 
show that in February and March he was employed in 
setting out and grafting fruit trees; for instance, March 
21, 1763, "Grafted 10 cherrys, viz., 12 Bullock Hearts 

32 



(a large black May Cherry), 18 very fine May Cherry, 
10 Coronation. Also grafted 12 Magnum Bonum Plums. 
Also planted 4 Nuts of the Mediterranean Pine. 
Note: the cherrys and plums came from Col. Mason's, 
the nuts from Mr. Green's." He mentions grafting or 
planting Spanish Pears, Butter Pears, Black Pear 
of Worcester, Bergamy Pears, New Town Pippins from 
Col. Mason, who had them from Mr. President Blair, 
and grapes from Mr. Digges. Washington set out 
lilac, sassafras, dogwood, aspen, mulberry, maple, black 
gum, poplar, locust, yellow willow, pines, juniper, ever- 
greens, spruce, peach-trees, hemlocks, weeping willow 
and magnolia. He was extremely fond of nuts and 
planted many nut trees. Three pecans planted by 
him before the Revolution were given him by Jefferson 
and have not yet attained middle age. The diary states 
September 15, 1763: "Planted in 11 holes on the west 
side of the Garden 22 English walnuts," and he also 
speaks of planting shellbarks, filberts and twenty-five 
Mississippi nuts, somewhat like the pignut, but larger, 
thinner shelled and fuller of meat. Washington wrote 
from Philadelphia to his overseer, 22d Feb., 1794: "I 
have shipped three bushels of Clover seed; two bushels 
of honey locust seed; and a keg of scaley bark hiccory 
nuts; — the two last are in one Cask: . . . Tell the 
Gardener he must plant the hiccory nuts in drills; — as 
the Illinois nuts herewith sent, must also be: — and they 
may be put near together in the drills, as they will be 
transplanted when they get to a proper size." The 
Illinois nuts were pecans. The diary shows that all the 
spring of 1785 Washington was busy grafting and plant- 
ing trees. January 19th, "Employed till dinner in laying 
out my Serpentine Road and Shrubberies adjoining. 
February 22nd — Removed two pretty large and full 
grown lilacs to the No. Garden gate— one on each side 
taking up as much dirt with the roots as could be well 

33 



obtained — I also removed from the woods and old fields, 
several young trees of the Sassafras, Dogwood and Red- 
bud, to the Shrubbery on the No. side the grass plot. 
February 28th — Planted all the Mulberry trees, Maple 
trees and Black gums in my Serpentine walks — and the 
Poplars on the right walk." March 23, 1786, he says 
he planted between 17,000 and 18,000 seeds of the 
honey locust. In 1794, 5000 plants of the white thorn 
were sent to him by Mr. Lear from London. Washing- 
ton was indebted to trees for his mansion. The frame- 
work is of oak, the sheathing North Carolina pine and 
the shingles cypress. The last time he left the house, 
which was the afternoon of the day before he died, he 
walked out through the snow to mark some trees to 
be cut down between the mansion and the river. His 
last letter was to his manager about the care of Mount 
Vernon. At his death he left written plans for the 
rotation of crops up to the end of 1803. 

In a letter to his neighbor, George Mason, wTitten 
in 1769, Washington speaks of those "who live genteely 
and hospitably on clear estates," and this is an exact 
description in eight words of the life at Mount Vernon. 
Though Washington said "we Hve in a state of peaceful 
tranquiUity," Mount Vernon was by no means quiet. 
The original brass knocker hangs on the central door, 
but I doubt if it was ever used, for long before reaching 
the door the arrival of company was announced by the 
barking of the dogs. Martha Washington writes that 
when she had gone on a visit and left her small son at 
home, every time the dogs barked she thought it was a 
messenger for her. If a day passed without company 
at Mount Vernon Washington mentioned it in his 
diary. It has been figured out that in two months in 
1768 Washington had company to dinner or to spend 
the night on twenty-nine days, and dined away or 
visited on seven. People whose very names their host 

34 



did not know were entertained there. Mount Vernon 
stands back a mile from the road to Colchester. Though 
the house can be seen from a considerable distance, 
people did not arrive there by accident. In 1787 
Washington wrote: 'My house may be compared to a 
well resorted tavern, as scarcely any strangers who 
are going from north to south, or from south to north, 
do not spend a day or two at it." "Those who resort 
here are strangers and people of the first distinction." 
Washington had so many letters to write and so much 
company that he was deprived of exercise. Persons 
who had been connected with the army wished certifi- 
cates in order to prove claims against the government: 
these made it necessary to spend much time consulting 
his records. For more than two years after the war 
he had no secretary. If David Humphries, Yale, 1771, 
who was later one of his secretaries and who did much 
literary work at Mount Vernon, had only given us an 
exact account of the daily life there, he would have 
earned lasting gratitude. Instead of which he produced 
a poem in the stilted manner of the period, beginning: 

"By broad Potowmack's azure tide, 
Where Vernon's Mount, in sylvan pride 

Displays its beauties far, 
Great Washington, to peaceful shades, 
Where no unhallow'd wish invades, 

Retir'd from fields of war." 

Though he lived simply and kept early hours, George 
Washington always paid great attention to the manner 
of doing things, and the grand air which he learned in 
his youth from Lord Fairfax he always retained. Dis- 
tinguished guests were lighted to their rooms by the 
General himself. The broad piazza overlooking the 
river was the usual meeting place when the weather 
permitted. The amount of entertaining which the 
Washingtons expected to do may be inferred from the 

35 



fact that six carving knives and forks are in the first 
order from England after their marriage. They were 
both of them particular about their clothes, china, 
furniture and equipages. When at Mount Vernon Mrs. 
Washington dressed plainly. When she drove to Alex- 
andria or Annapolis or Williamsburg with her coach 
and four, with the negro postillions and coachman in 
white and scarlet, she dressed as was fitting. In Decem- 
ber, 1755, Washington ordered from London two complete 
livery suits for servants. "I would have you choose 
the livery by our arms, only as the Field of the Arms 
is white; I think the cloaths had better not be quite so, 
but nearly like the Inclosed. The Trimmings and 
Facings of Scarlet and a scarlet waistcoat. If Livery 
Lace is not quite disusd I should be glad to have these 
cloaths Lacd, as I like that taste best, also two Silver 
Lacd Hatts to the above Livery's." August 10, 1764, 
he ordered "A Livery suit to be made of worsted 
shagg of the Inclosed colour and fineness lined with red 
shalloon and made as follows: The coat and Breeches 
alike with a plain white washed button — the button 
holes worked with mohair of the same colour. A collar 
of red shagg to the coat with a narrow lace like Inclosed 
round it — a narrow cuff of the same colour of the coat 
turned up to the bent of the arm and lacd round at 
that part — the waistcoat made of red shagg (worsted 
shagg also) and lacd with the same lace as that upon 
the collar and sleeves." No doubt it was that the white 
flowers of the dogwood and the red of the redwood 
might reproduce his colors that, March 1, 1795, Wash- 
ington planted "A circle of Dogwood with a Red bud 
in the middle close to the old cherry tree near the south 
garden house." 

Washington paid his debts promptly, and no man 
was more liberal to the poor or more ready to give 
his time and money to the public service. When he 

36 



took command of the Army in 1775 he wrote Lund 
Washington, who had charge of his affairs at Mount 
Vernon: "Let the hospitahty of the house, with respect 
to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. 
If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, 
supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage 
them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving 
my money in charity, to the amount of forty or fifty 
pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What 
I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire 
that it should be done." "I wish that my horses and 
stock of every kind should be fed with judicious plenty 
and economy, but without the least profusion or waste." 
One of the overseers wrote: " I had orders from 
General Washington to fill a cornhouse every year, for 
the sole use of the poor in my neighborhood, to whom 
it was a most seasonable and precious relief, saving 
numbers of poor women and children from extreme 
want, and blessing them with plenty ... He 
owned several fishing stations on the Potomac, at which 
excellent herring were caught, and which, when salted, 
proved an important article of food to the poor. For 
their accommodation he appropriated a station — one of 
the best he had — and furnished it with all the necessary 
apparatus for taking herring. Here the honest poor 
might fish free of expense, at any time, by only an ap- 
plication to the overseer; and if at any time unequal to 
the labor of hauling the seine, assistance was rendered 
by order of the General." In 1794, Washington gave 
his overseer definite instructions with regard to the 
entertainment of visitors at Mount Vernon. There 
were, he said, three classes of persons to whom should be 
given: "First, my particular and intimate acquaintance, 
in case business should call them there, such for in- 
stance as Doctor Craik, — 2ndly some of the most respect- 
able foreigners who may, perchance, be in Alexandria or 

37 



the federal city ; and be either brought down, or intro- 
duced by letter from some of my particular acquaintance 
as before mentioned; or thirdly, to persotis of some 
distinction (such as members of Congress & etc) who 
may be travelling through the Country from North to 
South, or from south to North ... I have no 
objection to any sober or orderly person's gratifying 
their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens &ct 
about Mount Vernon; but it is only to such persons as 
I have described, that I ought to be run to any expense on 
account of these visits of curiosity, beyond common 
civility and hospitahty, — No gentleman who has a 
proper respect for his own character (except relations 
and intimates) would use the house in my absence for 
the sake of conveniency (as it is far removed from the 
pubHc roads) unless invited to do so by me or some 
friend; — nor do I suppose any of this description would 
go there without a personal or written introduction." 
Washington's abihty to express a proposition clearly 
and to refuse a request gracefully is exemplified in the 
following letter — which he wrote October 30, 1787: 
"My fixed determination is, that no person whatever 
shall hunt upon my grounds or waters — To grant leave 
to one, and refuse another, would not only be drawing 
a line of discrimination which would be offensive, but 
would subject one to great inconvenience — for my strict 
and positive orders to all my people are if they hear a 
gun fired upon my land to go immediately in pursuit 
of it. Permission therefore to anyone would keep them 
either always in pursuit — or make them inattentive to 
my orders under the supposition of its belonging to a 
licensed person by which means I should be obtruded 
upon by others who to my cost I find had other objects 
in view. Besides, as I have not lost my relish for this 
sport when I can find time to indulge myself in it, and 
Gentlemen who come to the House are pleased with it, 

38 



it is my wish not to have the game within my jurisdic- 
tion disturbed. For these reasons I beg you will not 
take my refusal amiss, because I would give the same 
to my brother if he lived off my land." 

It is entirely owing to the efforts of the Mount 
Vernon Ladies' Association that when you cross the 
threshold of the mansion, you step into the home life 
of the Washingtons. George and Martha made their 
house a beautiful home, filled with handsome furniture 
of a period when furniture was noted for its substantial 
elegance. They were both of them particular about the 
appointments of the table, and Washington goes with 
minute care into details of wine-glasses, finger-bowls, 
decanters, butter-boats, tureens and other dishes. It 
is possible here to mention but a few of the priceless 
relics of Washington with which the Ladies of Mount 
Vernon have filled the mansion. I am especially inter- 
ested in the tools with which Washington worked. His 
surveyor's tripod is in the library. At sixteen he was 
earning his Hving by surveying, and he worked at it in 
later years, sometimes making surveys of Hunting 
Creek and other streams on the ice. As late as April 
21, 1785, he records that he went to Abingdon in his 
barge, "Took my instruments with intent to survey the 
land I hold by purchase on four mile run three miles 
above Alexandria," but the surveying ended abruptly, 
because Billy Lee, who was carrying the chain, fell and 
broke his knee pan, so that he had to be carried to 
Abingdon on a sled, as he could neither walk, stand, nor 
ride. A book might be written about the inkstand 
from which Washington dipped so many historic lines. 
In the hall are the swords with which he directed his 
troops. In leaving them to his nephews he tells them 
not to unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood, 
except for self-defense or in defense of their country and 
its rights, and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, 

39 



and to prefer falling with them in their hands to the 
relinquishment thereof. Washington's spy-glasses are 
poor things compared with modern binoculars, but he 
was the best observer in either army, and always wished 
to do his reconnoitering with his own eyes. He strained 
his eyes, so that he had to use spectacles, and remarked 
that he had not only grown old but blind in the service. 
You will see the implements with which he worked, 
but you will look in vain for pictures of Washington 
crossing the Delaware, or of Cornwallis surrendering at 
Yorktown; for, as the poet Prior said of William of Orange, 
the monuments of Washington's actions are to be seen 
everywhere except in his own house. I do not under- 
stand the flute in the music room, for Washington wrote 
Francis Hopkinson that he could n<'iiher sing one of 
his songs nor raise a single note on any instrument. In 
his earliest account-book there is an entry when Wash- 
ington was sixteen "to cash pd ye -Musick Master for 
my Entrance 3/9." An artist has painted the old 
Washington at Mount Vernon playing the flute, and 
another well-known painting represents the Washingtons 
entertaining Lafayette on the piazza, the party being 
seated in the best parlor chairs. Mrs. Washington was 
too careful a housekeeper to take her parlor chairs out 
even for Lafayette, and thirty windsor chairs were pro- 
vided for the porch. The large number of chairs indi- 
cates that the Washingtons had to be prepared to re- 
ceive many friends. A better subject fbr a painter, 
and one which has never been used, is furnished by 
Elkanah Watson, who, in January, 1785, spent at Mount 
Vernon what he calls "two of the richest days of my 
life." He says: "I found him (Washington) kind and 
benignant in the domestic circle, revered and beloved 
by all around him; agreeably social, without ostenta- 
tion; delighting in anecdote and adventures, without 
assumption; his domestic arrangements harmonious 

40 



and systematic. His servants seemed to watch his 
eye, and to anticipate his every wish; hence a look was 
equivalent to a command. His servant, Billy, the 
faithful companion of his military career, was always at 
his side, smiling content, animated and beamed on every 
countenance in his presence." Watson had a severe 
cough, and he says, some time after he had retired, "the 
door of my room was gently opened and on drawing my 
bed-curtains, to my utter astonishment, I beheld Wash- 
ington himself, standing at my bed-side with a bowl of 
hot tea in his hand." What a picture: the General with 
his old military cloak thrown over his broad shoulders, 
a candle in one hand and the bowl of tea in the other, 
and the astonished face of Watson peering out between 
the bed curtains! I wonder how Washington got that 
tea in those days when water froze in the kettle at night 
and they had to light the fire with a flint. Watson says 
that Washington talked about little else for two days 
but the navigation of the Potomac. 

In the hall hangs the original deed of 1674 by 
which John Washington, the emigrant, great grand- 
father of George, derived from Lord Culpepper his 
title to Mount Vernon. If you are fond of puzzles 
try to read it. The Houdon bust, which Stuart called 
the only representation of Washington better than 
his own portraits, was made at Mount Vernon. It 
is by no means the least of the debts America owes 
to France. Houdon, the most celebrated sculptor 
of that time, came from France at the request of 
the General Assembly of Virginia in order to model 
Washington from life. With his three assistants he 
arrived from Alexandria by water at eleven o'clock 
at night. He remained about three weeks, and made a 
cast of the face, head and shoulders and took minute 
measurements of the body. Amid so much that is 
vague and legendary, the Houdon statute stands forth 

41 



clear in its artistic and historic accuracy. No work of 
art exists that is more authentic. "From its inception 
to its completion it is historically marked by a chrono- 
logical record of facts, resolutions, correspondence and 
inscriptions which will preserve its identity and char- 
acter through all time ; and what is most rare, its per- 
fect similitude to the original is established by facts and 
opinions as convincing as human testimony can fur- 
nish." Lafayette said that it is a "fac-simile of Wash- 
ington's Person." 

Other representations of Washington had been 
executed at Mount Vernon before the arrival of 
Houdon. In May, 1772, Charles Willson Peale painted 
Washington in the blue and red uniform of a colonel of 
Virginia militia, and he made also miniatures of Mrs. 
Washington and her two children. Peale returned in 
January, 1774, and painted the portrait of John Parke 
Custis. Peale says in his diary that, as he was leaving, 
Colonel Washington gave him a cup and saucer to take 
to his wife as a souvenir. April 28, 1784, Robert Edge 
Pine came and remained three weeks, painting Wash- 
ington and the two grandchildren, George Washington 
Custis and Nelly Custis. 

The Key of the Bastille sent to Washington by 
Lafayette gives an international emphasis to Wash- 
ington's efforts for freedom. The fourteenth of July, 
1789, the day of the destruction of that fortress, 
where for four hundred years Frenchmen had been 
imprisoned without a trial, is to the French what the 
Fourth of July is to us. 

At Mount Vernon the cultivation of no part of 
Washington's nature was neglected. He found abundant 
exercise for his body in hard work on his farms, in the 
long rides which it was necessary for him to take, in 
hunting with his horses and hounds, and he was a stately 
and graceful dancer. Books, letters, pondering on im- 

42 



portant matters and converse with intellectual neigh- 
bors like George Alason and Lord Fairfax, exercised his 
mind. He found uplift for his soul in reading his Bible, 
in communion with his good wife, who was a woman of 
eminent piety, and in the church services at Pohick and 
Alexandria. On Sundays, when the Washingtons were 
stormbound, he read the Bible and sermons to his family 
with distinct and precise enunciation. There is a book 
entirely in his writing of prayers for the mornings and 
evenings of different days of the week, which he care- 
fully compiled from sentences in the Book of Common 
Prayer, and there is a pocket note-book in which Wash- 
ington has entered Bible references. With the exception 
of an interlined note, all the entries in the family Bible 
are in his writing. In 1794 he wrote Charles Thompson 
that he had finished reading the first part of his trans- 
lation of the Septuagint. Washington often quotes the 
Scriptures, his favorite reference being to the verse in 
Micah about reposing under his own vine and fig-tree. 
He expresses a wish that the swords might be turned to 
plough shares, the spears into pruning-hooks, and as the 
Scripture expresses it, "the nations learn war no more." 
He regrets that Noah allowed the tobacco worms to get 
into the ark, and in my "Washington as Man of Letters" 
I have given other quotations showing that Washington 
was very familiar with the Bible. His nephew, Bobert 
Lewis, said that he had accidentally witnessed Wash- 
ington's private devotions in his library both morning 
and evening, and had seen him kneeUng with an open 
Bible before him, and that this was his daily habit. 
Washington went to his library at four in the morning, 
and, after his devotions, spent the time till breakfast in 
writing and study. He also spent an hour in his library 
before retiring at night, and he wrote: "It is my inten- 
tion to retire (and unless prevented by very particular 
company, I always do retire) either to bed or to my study 

43 



soon after candlelight." The library was rich in books 
of devotion, and Mrs. Washington is known to have 
been a great reader of them. That the General read 
them also is shown by his letters. In 1789, acknowledg- 
ing a sermon on the text "But ye shall die like men," 
Washington not only says that he has read the sermon , 
but also that he approves the doctrine inculcated. 
August 14, 1797, Washington wrote the Reverend Zacha- 
riah Lewis, thanking him for the sermons he had sent, und 
saying that the doctrine in them is sound and does credit 
to the author. Nelly Custis wrote Jared Sparks with 
regard to Washington: "He attended the church at 
Alexandria when the weather and roads permitted, a 
ride of ten miles. In New York and Philadelphia he 
never omitted attendance at church in the morning, 
unless detained by indisposition. The afternoon was 
spent in his own room at home; the evening with his 
family, and without company. Sometimes an old and 
intimate friend called to see us for an hour or two; but 
visiting and visitors were prohibited for that day. No 
one in church attended to the services with more re- 
verential respect. My grandmother, who was eminently 
pious, never deviated from her early habits. She always 
knelt. The General, as was then the custom, stood 
during the devotional parts of the service." Bishop 
White states that Washington's manner at church was 
always serious and attentive. A foreign house guest at 
Mount Vernon observed that on Sabbath evening there 
was no secular music and not even a game of chess. 
Throughout his campaigns Washington was always care- 
ful about religious services. William Fairfax wrote him 
in 1754 that he had no doubt that his having public 
prayers in camp would have great influence with the 
Indians. Washington read the funeral service over 
General Braddock, and as a young officer frequently 
read prayers and the Scriptures to his men. During the 

44 



French and Indian War Colonel Temple "more than 
once found him on his knees at his devotions." In his 
diary Washington records: "Williamsburg June 1, 1774, 
went to church and fasted all day." Unless a clergyman 
was present Washington always asked a blessing at his 
table. We. have seen how particular Augustine Wash- 
ington was in his attendance on vestry meetings. The 
Pohick vestry book shows that his son was equally 
scrupulous. From 1763 to 1774 George Washington 
attended twenty-three of the thirty-one meetings of 
Pohick vestry, once he was sick in bed, twice he was in 
attendance on the House of Burgesses, and three times 
he is known to have been out of the county, and the 
other two times he was probably out of county. Rev. 
Charles Green, who was rector of Pohick, 1738-65, was 
also the family physician and a valued friend. His suc- 
cessor, Rev. Lee Massey, wrote: "I never knew so con- 
stant an attendant in church as Washington, and his 
behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply rev- 
erential that it produced the happiest effect on my con- 
gregation and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labors. 
No company ever withheld him from church. I have 
often been at Mount Vernon on Sabbath morning, when 
his breakfast table was filled with guests ; but to him they 
furnished no pretext for neglecting his God and losing 
the satisfaction of setting a good example. For, in- 
stead of staying at home out of false complaisance to 
them, he used constantly to invite them to accompany 
him." It has been objected that Washington's diary 
shows that in 1760 he went to Pohick church but sixteen 
times, but services were not held at Pohick every Sun- 
day. Doubtless there were Sundays when bad roads and 
inclement weather made it impossible to get there, and 
there were other Sundays when Washington was away 
from home. It is even possible that he may have been 
to church and omitted to enter the fact in his diary. 

45 



There are numerous records of Washington's attending 
church when away from home. Jared Sparks, who 
studied Washington's manuscripts as no other person 
has been able to do, states: "After a long and minute 
examination of the writings of Washington, public and 
private, in print and in manuscript, I can affirm that 
I have never seen a single hint or expression from which 
it could be inferred that he had any doubt of the Christ- 
ian revelation, or that he thought with indifference 
or unconcern of that subject. On the contrary, whenever 
he approaches it, and indeed whenever he alludes in 
any manner to religion, it is done with seriousness and 
reverence." "If a man, who spoke, wrote, and acted 
as a Christian through a long life, who gave numerous 
proofs of his believing himself to be such, and who was 
never known to say, write or do a thing contrary to his 
professions, if such a man is not to be ranked among the 
beUevers of Christianity, it would be impossible to estab- 
lish the point by any train of reasoning." 

When in 1773 Mrs. Washington's onl> daughter, 
beautiful Patsy Custis, was fatally stricken, Washington 
knelt by her side and prayed fervently for her recovery. 
His diary states, June 19th: "At home all day — about 
five o'clock poor Patsy Custis died suddenly." The next 
day Washington wrote: "She expired in less than two 
minutes without uttering a word or groan or scarce a 
sigh, the sweet innocent girl entered into a more happy 
and peaceful abode than she has met with in the afflicted 
path she has hitherto trod. It is an easier matter to 
conceive than to describe the distress of this family 
at the loss of dear Patsy Custis. This sudden and un- 
expected blow, I need scarce add has almost reduced my 
poor wife to the lowest ebb of misery ; which is increased 
by the absence of her son who is a student in King's 
College, New York." Patsy was laid to rest in the old 
tomb on the twentieth. The diary states the nineteenth 

46 



was very warm and clear, with a south wind. The day of 
the funeral it was still very warm, with thunder and 
appearances of rain, but none fell at Mount Vernon. 
The custom of placing the tomb near the mansion caused 
the departed to continue in a peculiar and intimate 
manner members of the household, and the proximity of 
the mortal remains of loved ones like Patsy Custis and 
Lawrence Washington kept the eternal verities constantly 
before the thoughtful mind. 

Washington could not have been the man he was 
without the inspiration of his deeply pious nature. No 
one was more fully convinced than he that without 
righteousness no nation can be exalted, and this funda- 
mental truth pervades his voluminous writings. There 
is no sentiment more sincere or more frequent than his 
confidence in God and gratitude for His mercies. In 
1755, after his campaign with Braddock, Washington 
writes: "By all the powerful dispensations of Provi- 
dence, I have been protected beyond all human prob- 
ability or expectation ; for I had four bullets through my 
coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt 
although death was levelling my companions on every 
side of me." In 1789 he wrote: "When I contemplate 
the interposition of Providence, as it was manifested in 
guiding us through the Revolution, in preparing us for 
the reception of a General Government, and in conciliat- 
ing the good will of the people of America towards one 
another, after its adoption, I feel myself oppressed and 
almost overwhelmed, with a sense of the Divine Munifi- 
cence." "I am sure there never was a people, who had 
more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in 
their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should 
be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, 
which was so often manifested during our Revolution 
or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that 
God, who is alone able to protect them." 

47 



Little has been written about the conferences which 
some of the most important men of those critical times 
held at Mount Vernon. George Mason, who drafted the 
first Constitution of Virginia, lived at Gunston Hall, a 
few miles down the river. Among Washington's papers 
are the Fairfax Resolves, in the writing of Mason, adopted 
by a committee of which Washington was chairman, 
July 18, 1774. There were twenty-four of these resolu- 
tions, forming one of the most important documents in 
our early history. They may be summed up in the 
statement — we will religiously maintain and inviolably 
adhere to such measures as shall be concerted by the 
general Congress for the preservation of our lives, 
liberties and fortunes. Jefferson drafted the Declaration 
of Independence, but the essential ideas of that great 
document may be found in the Fairfax resolves, with 
which Jefferson as a Virginia statesman was perfectly 
familiar. There can be little doubt that Washington 
and Mason did a large part of the work on these resolu- 
tions at Mount Vernon. Two weeks later these resolves 
were in effect adopted by the Virginia Convention, where 
Washington represented Fairfax County, and they formed 
the basis of Virginia's instructions to her delegates to 
the first Continental Congress. Before that Congress 
Washington enters in his diary: "August 30 — Colo. 
Pendleton, Mr. Henry, Colo. Mason, and Mr. Thos. 
Triplet, came in the evening and stayed all night. 
31. All the above gentlemen dined here; after which with 
Colo. Pendleton and Mr. Henry, I set out on my journey 
to Philadelphia.'' Horatio Gates, Henry Lee and others 
had an important conference at Mount Vernon, May 3, 
1775, and the next day Washington set out for the 
Second Congress at Philadelphia. Historians have paid 
little attention to the Mount Vernon Convention held 
in March, 1785. At this time our country was in greater 
peril than during the war, because the pressure from 

48 



without, which held the states together, being removed, 
they were in danger of falHng apart, so that Washington 
wrote: "what astonishing changes a few years are capable 
of producing. I am told that even respectable characters 
speak of a monarchical form of government without 
horror. From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to 
acting is often but a step. But how irrevocable and 
tremendous." Commissioners had been appointed by 
Maryland and Virginia to settle the navigatibn and 
jurisdiction of the Chesapeake and Potomac. Among the 
delegates were Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Samuel 
Chase and George Mason. The commission recom- 
mended a uniformity of duties, currency and commercial 
regulations, and, in consequence of this, Virginia sent 
out an invitation to all the states which resulted in the 
convention which framed our Constitution. A pleasant 
instance of neighborly courtesy is described when 
Washington recorded in his diary that he sent Mr. Mason 
home from the convention in his carriage, "by the return 
of which he sent me some young shoots of the Persian 
jessamine and Guelder rose." 

Washington took great pains to secure the most 
exact information on subjects which interested him. 
All his life he was buying books. His library of more 
than a thousand volumes, mostly on agriculture, govern- 
ment and military affairs was a large one for that time. 
An interesting date is Friday, June 16, 1786, when Wash- 
ington records: "Began about 10 o'clock to put up the book 
press in my study." Washington had at Mount Vernon 
more than two hundred folio volumes of his documents, 
and these formed only a part of his manuscripts. His 
diary speaks of entire days spent in writing. In 1797, 
he states that he intends to erect a building at Mount 
Vernon for the security of his papers. How restful it 
was for him to turn aside from weighty and perplexing 
matters of state and the selfish designs of politicians, and 

49 



to write: "I have a high opinion of beans." "Of all the 
improving and ameliorating crops, none in my opinion 
is equal to potatoes." It was in his library that Wash- 
ington made those painstaking studies of republican 
forms of government, the notes of which still exist 
in his writing. He made good use of them when he 
presided at the Constitutional Convention, which con- 
vened in 1787. We form a better idea of his sacrifices 
for our country as we picture him before the convention, 
going around Mount Vernon for ten days with his arm 
in a sHng because of rheumatism. Few Americans under- 
stand that if we had had no Washington we should not 
have had our Constitution; not only because of his 
powerful agency in framing it and his great influence 
in securing its adoption, but because the certainty that 
Washington would be first President made the people 
sure that the provisions of the Constitution would be 
interpreted with wisdom and executed with justice. 
Not until Washington was elected was the chief power 
in America vested in a single person, and in Washington 
the highest power was entrusted to the most worthy, 
which is the greatest assurance of good government. 
Respect for Washington among the nations of Europe 
gave dignity to our new government. 

In 1791 Major L'Enfant,who had served as engineer 
in the American army, spent some time with Washing- 
ton at Mount Vernon, and in consultation with the Presi- 
dent drew up the plans of the Federal City, which was 
afterwards called Washington. In September, 1798, 
Washington laid the corner stone of the capitol. There 
is no doubt that nothing but the extreme conscientious- 
ness of Washington, and his reluctance to use his in- 
fluence for his own advantage, is responsible for locating 
the Federal City so far away from Mount Vernon. 

It was from Mount Vernon, May 20, 1792, that 
Washington wrote Madison concerning matters which 

50 



he says he had been revolving in his mind with thoughtful 
anxiety. He asked Madison to turn his thoughts to a 
valedictory address, and to say, among other things: 
"That we are all the children of the same country, a 
country great and rich in itself — capable and promising 
to be as prosperous and as happy as any the annals of 
history have ever brought to our view — that our interest, 
however diversified in local and smaller matters, is the 
same in all the great and essential concerns of the nation. 
That the extent of our country — the diversity of our 
climate and soil — and the various productions of the 
States consequent of both, are such as to make one part 
not only convenient, but perhaps indispensably neces- 
sary to the other part; and may render the whole (at 
no distant period) one of the most independent in the 
world. That the established government being the work 
of our own hands, with the seeds of amendment engrafted 
in the Constitution may by wisdom, good dispositions, 
and mutual allowances; aided by experience, bring it as 
near to perfection as any human institution ever approxi- 
mated; and therefore, the only strife among us ought to 
be, who should be foremost in facilitating and finally 
accomplishing such great and desirable objects; by giv- 
ing every possible support and cement to the Union." 
Here we have the idea of the Farewell Address carefully 
thought out by Washington at Mount Vernon more than 
four years before the address was published. Washing- 
ton was at Mount Vernon from June 20 to August 17, 
1796, and made the final draft of his Farewell Address, 
which was made public in September. Lossing wrote: 
"Of all the associations which cluster around Mount 
Vernon, none should be dearer to the heart of freedom 
and good order than that connected with Washington's 
Farewell Address." And Daniel Webster said: "Whenever 
his Farewell Address to his country shall be forgotten, 
and its admonitions rejected by the people of America, 

51 



from that time it will become a farewell address to all 
the bright hopes of human liberty on earth." 



While the sweet influences of Mount Vernon are sink- 
ing into our souls, let us not forget the gracious lady who 
inspired and comforted her husband throughout so many 
anxious years. Martha Washington preferred to re- 
main in the background, so that her services to our 
country have never been understood and appreciated. 
She always encouraged the General to patriotic effort 
at the sacrifice of that domestic life to which both were 
devoted. At the very beginning of the Revolution she 
wrote: "My mind is made up; my heart is in the cause." 
For that cause, which was our cause, the Washingtons 
placed at stake their lives and all their earthly possessions. 
Late in August, 1774, Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendle- 
ton spent the night at Mount Vernon, before setting out 
with Washington for Philadelphia to attend the first 
Continental Congress. Mr. Pendleton has left a charm- 
ing description of their hostess at this critical period: 
"I was much pleased with Mrs. Washington and her 
spirit. She seemed ready to make any sacrifice, and was 
cheerful, though I know she felt anxious. She talked like 
a Spartan mother to her son on going to battle. 'I hope 
you will all stand firm. I know George will,' she said. 
The dear little woman was busy from morning until night 
with domestic duties, but she gave us much time in con- 
versation and aff'ording us entertainment. When we 
set off in the morning, she stood in the door and cheered 
us with the good words, 'God be with you, gentlemen.' " 
Martha Washington little thought, when she said good- 
bye to her husband in May, 1775, that it would be more 
than six years before he returned to Mount Vernon, and 
that when she saw him next he would be five hundred 
miles away from home, at the head of the American army. 
Till she went to Cambridge she had never been farther 

52 



north than Alexandria. She travelled in state in the 
family coach, attended by liveried servants and accom- 
panied by her son and his wife. She filled her difficult 
position at Headquarters in the Longfellow house with 
tact and courtesy, for she was equal to every situation in 
which her husband's exalted station placed her. The 
uniform testimony of those who knew Martha Washing- 
ton is that she combined, in an extraordinary degree, dig- 
nity and affability. You will reaUze her delicacy of feeling 
and elevation of character when you read this exquisite 
letter which Martha Washington wrote in 1773 to the 
girl bride of her only son : 

My dear Nelly: God took from Me a Daughter 
when June Roses were blooming. He has now given me 
another daughter about her Age when Winter winds are 
blowing, to warm my Heart again. I am as Happy as 
One so Afflicted and so Blest can be. Pray receive my 
Benediction and a wish that you may long live the 
Loving Wife of my Happy Son, and a Loving Daughter of 
Your Affectionate Mother, 

M. Washington. 

It is to be regretted that no letter from Mrs. Wash- 
ing to her husband has been preserved, and that there 
are only three letters that he wrote her. Here is one 
that is little known. It was written as the newly ap- 
pointed general was setting out to take command of the 
American army, and was found in Mrs. Washington's 
writing desk after her death. 

Philadelphia, June 23d. 
My Dearest: As 1 am within a few minutes of 
leaving this city, I could not think of departing from it 
without dropping you a line; especially as I do not know 
whether it may be in my power to write again till I get 
to the camp at Boston. I go fully trusting in that Pro- 

53 



vidence, which has been more bountiful to me than I 
deserve, and in full confidence of a happy meeting with 
you some time in the fall. 

I have not time to add more as I am surrounded with 
company to take leave of me. I retain an unalterable 
affection for you, which neither time or distance can 
change. My best love to Jack and Nelly, and regards to 
the rest of the Family, concludes me with the utmost 
truth and sincerity. 

Your entire, 

G. Washington. 

On his appointment to command of the army, Wash- 
ington wrote his half-brother, John Augustine: "I shall 
hope that my friends will visit and endeavor to keep up 
the spirits of my wife as much as they can, for my de- 
parture will, I know, be a cutting stroke upon her; and 
on this account I have many disagreeable sensations." 
The General also wrote Jack Custis that he thought it 
absolutely necessary for the peace and satisfaction of his 
mother that he and his wife should live at Mount Vernon 
during his own absence. 

Mrs. Washington described herself as being "a 
kind of walking perambulator" during the war. She 
spent every winter with the General at headquarters, 
and said that she heard the first and last guns every 
season, and "marched home when the campaign was 
about to open." Lord Dunmore came up the Poto- 
mac to capture her, but the Virginia militia assem- 
bled in such numbers that he did not dare to attempt it. 
When her friends advised her to move back into the 
interior of the country, she said : "No. I will not desert my 
post." Valuables and important papers were kept in 
trunks, so that they could be moved at a moment's no- 
tice. In those times, when there were no telegraphs and 
telephones, what anxious days Martha Washington must 

54 



have spent when important operations were in progress! 
For instance, when the British army was landing at the 
head of Elk, about to fight a battle which they expected 
would destroy her husband's army. Late in August, 
1777, while reconnoitering before the battle of the Bran- 
dywine, Washington spent the night near the Head of 
Elk. This was the nearest that he came to Mount Ver- 
non during the war until, as he enters in his diary in 1781 : 
"Sunday September 9th. I reached my own Seat at 
Mount Vernon (distance 120 miles from Head of Elk) 
where I staid till the 12th." The 10th, Washington wrote 
Lafayette: "We are thus far on our way to you. The 
Count de Rochambeau has just arrived. General 
Chastellux will be here and we propose, after resting 
to-morrow to be at Fredericksburg on the night of the 
12th." It is safe to say that no more welcome visitor 
ever has been or will be received at Mount Vernon, for 
Rochambeau was in command of the army of France, and 
they were on their way to Yorktown. About this time, 
however, Mount Vernon had other visitors of distinc- 
tion. As far as I know, this letter has never been pub- 
lished. It tells of a hurried visit paid to Mount Vernon 
by Generals Greene and Steuben during the Southern 
Campaign, and was written to Washington by General 
Greene. 

Mount Vernon, November IMh, 1780. 

Sir: I arrived here yesterday about noon, and met with a 
kind and hospitable reception by Mrs. Washington and 
all the family. Mrs. Washington, Mr. and Mrs. Custis 
(who are here) and Mr. Lund Washington and his Lady 
are all well. 

We set out this morning for Richmond, and it is 
now so early that I am obliged to write by candlehght. 
Nothing but the absolute necessity of my being with my 
command as soon as possible should induce me to make 
my stay so short at your Excellency's seat, where there 

55 



is everything that nature and art can afford to render my 
stay happy and agreeable. Mount Vernon is one of the 
most pleasant places I ever saw; and I don't wonder 
that you languish so often to return to the pleasures of 
domestic life. Nothing but the glory of being Com- 
mander in Chief, and the happiness of being universally 
admired could compensate a person for such a sacrifice 
as you make. Baron Steuben is delighted with the place, 
and charmed with the reception we met with. Mrs. Wash- 
ington sets out for camp about the middle of this week. 

In March, 1781, Lafayette, who was carrying on 
operations in Virginia which resulted in the penning up 
of Cornwallis at Yorktown, came to Mount Vernon, but 
he was not entertained there by the General until he 
returned to America in 1784. Mrs. General Knox visited 
Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon in October, 1781, 
while the siege of Yorktown was in progress. 

Her active interest in the sick and wounded made 
Lady Washington, as the soldiers liked to call her, be- 
loved by the army. Her only surviving child, John 
Parke Custis, earned the Gold Service Star when he died 
near Yorktown of a fever contracted at the siege. Refer- 
ring to his death, Washington wrote Lafayette from 
Mount Vernon, where he had returned for a week in 
November: "This unexpected and affecting event threw 
Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Custis, who were both 
present, in such deep distress, that the circumstance of it, 
and a duty I owed the deceased in assisting at his funeral 
rites, prevented my reaching this place till the 13th." 
During this stay of a week at his home, Washington 
devoted much time to catching up with the arrears of 
his correspondence. 

Washington resigned his commission at Annapolis, 
December 23, 1783, and, once more a private citizen, 
reached Mount Vernon with Mrs. Washington on 

56 



Christmas eve. Relatives and friends had gathered 
to welcome them, and the servants made the night 
gay with bonfires, fiddling and dancing. February 
1, 1784, Washington wrote Lafayette: "At length, my 
dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the 
banks of Potomac, and under the shadow of my own vine 
and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp and 
the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with 
those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is 
ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful 
days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes 
to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of 
other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all, 
and the courtier, who is always watching the counte- 
nance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile 
can have very little conception." 

They were so fast locked in snow and ice after Christ- 
mas that it was not until February 11th Washington 
was able to go to Fredericksburg to visit his mother; he re- 
turned the 19th. April 12th Luzerne, the French minister, 
who was spending several days at Mount Vernon, wrote 
of Washington: "He dresses in a gray coat like a Virginia 
farmer, and nothing about him recalls the recollection of 
the important part which he has played, except the 
great number of foreigners who come to see him." 
Lafayette arrived in New York from France August 
4, 1784, and reached Mount Vernon August 17th, 
where he remained twelve days. November 14th Wash- 
ington went to Richmond, met Lafayette there, and the 
Marquis returned to Mount Vernon for a second visit of 
a week. November 29th Washington and Lafayette 
went to Annapolis, where he bade a final farewell to the 
Marquis. 

The years from 1784 to 1789 Washington called his 
furlough. Brissot de Warville, who visited Mount 
Vernon in 1788, wrote: "Everything has an air of sim- 

57 



plicity in his house, his table is good, but not ostentatious, 
and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic 
economy. Mrs. Washington superintends the whole, 
and joins to the qualities of an excellent housewife that 
simple dignity which ought to characterize a woman 
whose husband has acted the greatest part on the theatre 
of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity, and 
manifests that attention to strangers, which renders 
hospitahty so charming." Thomas Lee Shippen wrote 
from Mount Vernon: "Mrs. Washington is the very 
essence of kindness. Her soul seems to overflow with 
it like the most abundant fountain and her happiness is 
in exact proportion to the number of objects upon which 
she can dispense her benefits." 

More than half of the forty-six years of Washing- 
ton's ownership of Mount Vernon was spent in the pub- 
lic service. In 1798, near the end of his life, he wrote: 
"Twenty -five years have passed away since I have con- 
sidered myself a permanent resident beneath my own 
roof at Mount Vernon." During the Revolution Wash- 
ington was always looking forward to the time when he 
could return to his beloved home. He wrote his wife: 
"I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with 
you at home than I have the most distant prospect of 
finding abroad if my stay were to be seven times seven 
years." When it became probable that he would be 
chosen first President of the United States, he wrote 
John Armstrong, April 25, 1788: 

"I well remember the observation you made in 
your letter to me of last year, 'that my domestic retire- 
ment must suff'er an interruption.' This took place, 
notwithstanding it was utterly repugnant to my feelings, 
my interests, and my wishes. I sacrificed every private 
consideration, and personal enjoyment, to the earnest 
and pressing solicitations of those, who saw and knew the 
alarming situation of our public concerns, and had no 

58 



other end in view but to promote the interests of their 
country; conceiving that under those circumstances, and 
at so critical a moment, an absolute refusal to act might 
on my part be construed as a total disregard of my coun- 
try, if imputed to no worse motives. I am so wedded 
to a state of retirement, and find the occupations of a 
rural life so congenial with my feelings that to be drawn 
into public at my advanced age would be a sacrifice, 
that would admit of no compensation." When he was 
leaving to be inaugurated at New York, Washington 
wrote, April 16, 1789: "I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, 
to private life, and to domestic felicity." That Mrs. 
Washington shared her husband's regret at leaving 
Mount Vernon is clear from the following letter written 
in December, 1789: "I little thought when the war was 
finished that any circumstances could possibly happen 
which would call the General into public life again. I 
had anticipated that, from that moment, we should be 
suffered to grow old together, in solitude and tranquility. 
That was the first and dearest wish of my heart. I will 
not, however, contemplate with too much regret disap- 
pointments that were inevitable; though his feelings and 
my own were in perfect unison with respect to our pre- 
delictions for private life, yet I cannot blame him for 
having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying 
the voice of his country. It is owing to the kindness of 
our numerous friends, in all quarters, that my new and 
unwished for situation is not, indeed, a burden to me. 
When I was much younger I should probably have en- 
joyed the innocent gayeties of life as much as most per- 
sons of my age; but I had long since placed all the pros- 
pects of my future worldly happiness in the still enjoy- 
ments of the fireside at Mount Vernon." This is, I believe, 
the only letter in which the wife of a newly-elected Presi- 
dent expresses her regret at her husband's election. 

During his eight years as President in New York 
59 



and Philadelphia, Washington made such visits to 
Mount Vernon as official duties permitted, and he al- 
ways thought: "I had rather be at Mount Vernon 
with a friend or two about me, than to be attended 
at the seat of Government by the officers of state 
and representatives of every power in Europe." On 
their return to Mount Vernon after the Presidency, 
Mrs. Washington wrote Mrs. Knox: "We are so 
penurious with our enjoyment that we are loath to 
share it with any one but dear friends, yet almost every 
day some stranger claims a portion of it, and we cannot 
refuse. The twihght is gathering around our lives. I 
am again fairly settled down to the pleasant duties of an 
old-fashioned Virginia housekeeper, steady as a clock, 
busy as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket." She wrote Mrs. 
Samuel Powel, of Philadelphia, that she hoped for a visit 
"when all things will be blooming here in the spring 
except the withering proprietors of the mansion." 

Washington lived but two years and nine months 
after he retired from the Presidency, March 4, 1797. He 
wrote General Knox: "The remainder of my life, which in 
the course of nature, cannot be long, will be occupied 
in rural amusements; and though I shall seclude myself 
as much as possible from the noisy and bustling crowd, 
none would more than myself be regaled by the company 
of those I esteem at Mount Vernon; more than twenty 
miles from which, after I arrive there, it is not likely that 
I shall ever be." Washington wrote in October 1797: 
"An eight years absence from home (excepting short oc- 
casional visits) had so deranged my private affairs; had 
so despoiled my buildings; and in a word had thrown 
my domestic concerns into such disorder; as at no 
period of my life have I been more engaged than in the 
last six months to recover and put them in some tolerable 
train again." September 28, 1799, he wrote Lawrence 
Lewis: "It is my wish to place my estate in this county on 

60 



a new establishment, thereby bringing it into so narrow a 
compass as not only to supersede the necessity of a man- 
ager, but to make the management of what I retain in 
my own hands a healthy and agreeable amusement to 
look after myself, if I should not be again called to the 
public service of the country." Who does not sympa- 
thize with Washington when he writes McHenry: "Al- 
though I have not houses to build (except one, which I 
must erect for the accommodation and security of my 
Mihtary, Civil and private Papers, which are volumi- 
nous and may be interesting) yet I have not one, or 
scarcely anything else about me that does not require 
considerable repairs. In a word, I am already sur- 
surrounded by joiners, masons, painters, etc., etc., and 
such is my anxiety to get out of their hands, that I have 
scarcely a room to put a friend into, or to sit in myself, 
without the music of hammers, or the odoriferous smell 
of paint." The collection of Washington's manuscripts 
is the largest in the world in the handwriting of one man, 
and in 1827 Jared Sparks, with the permission of Judge 
Bushrod Washington, who then owned the estate, spent 
many weeks at Mount Vernon going over the enormous 
mass of them which were then there. 

No man loved his home more than Washington, and 
yet no man was so ready to leave it at his country's call. 
I consider his accepting the command of the army in 
1798 the most patriotic act of all his patriotic life. His 
fame was bright and secure; he was comfortably es- 
tablished at Mount Vernon, where the infirmities of age 
were creeping upon him; he had everything to lose and 
nothing to gain; no man would be shrewder than Wash- 
ington in understanding this; yet he was ready to sacri- 
fice reputation and comfort, because he thought that he 
might serve his country. He wrote: "As my whole 
life has been dedicated to my country in one shape or 
another, for the poor remains of it, it is not an object to 

61 



contend for ease and quiet, when all that is valuable is at 
stake, further than to be satisfied that the sacrifice I 
should make of these is acceptable and desired by my 
country." 

Washington would have been touched by the im- 
portant part which school children have borne in the 
restoration of Mount Vernon. He took an affectionate 
interest in the bringing up of youth, and there was no 
philanthropy for which he opened his purse more freely 
than education. Though God left him childless in order 
that he might be the Father of his Country, fondness for 
children was a charming characteristic, and the beautiful 
children and grandchildren of Mrs. Washington added 
joy to their life at Mount Vernon. Mrs. Fitzhugh, Wash- 
ington's niece, who, as a child, was a frequent visitor to 
Mount Vernon, said that often, when at their games in the 
drawing room at night — perhaps romping, dancing and 
noisy — they would see the General watching their move- 
ments at some side door, enjoying their sport ; and if at 
any time his presence seemed to check them, he would 
beg them not to mind him, but go on just as before, en- 
couraging them in every possible way to continue their 
amusements to their hearts' content. John Parke Gustis, 
Mrs. Washington's son, left four children, the two young- 
est of whom the General adopted. When in 1824 Lafay- 
ette last visited America, he told G. W. P. Gustis that 
he has seen him first on the portico at Mount Vernon 
in 1784. "A very little gentleman, with a feather in his 
hat, holding fast to one finger of the good general's re- 
markable hand, which (so large that hand!) was all, my 
dear sir, you could well do at that time." Nelly, the 
sister of George Washington Parke Gustis, used to stand 
on tiptoe to hold the button of the General's coat while 
she charmed him with her girlish confidences. Nelly 
Gustis was married to Lawrence Lewis at Mount Vernon 
on Washington's last birthday. At the wedding the 

62 



General wore his old continental uniform of blue and 
buff, and this was probably the last time he had it on. 
The first child of Nelly Custis was born a few days before 
Washington's death at Mount Vernon. Both Nelly 
Custis and her daughter rest at Mount Vernon. When, 
at the age of seventy-four, Nelly Custis died, her sister 
wrote: "I do not think in all our long intercourse she ever 
uttered a word to me that was not the most perfect kind- 
ness." Her character had been formed by Martha 
Washington, and the excellence of her teaching may be 
judged from the following verses which Nellie wrote on 
the death of her daughter : 

TO THE MEMORY OF MY AGNES. 

"Why, then, do you grieve for me mother?" she cried. 

As I painted the joys of the blest; 
"Why, then, do you grieve, dearest child?" I replied, 
"Thou wilt go to a haven of rest." 

For thee, my lost Angel, ev'n death had no sting. 
And no terrors, the cold, silent grave; 
Tho' thy Maker recalled thee, in life's early Spring, 
He resumed but the blessing He gave. 

Thy end was so peaceful, so pure was thy life. 
Could a wish now restore thee again, 
'Twere a sin to expose thee to perils and strife. 
To a world of temptation and pain. 

I cannot forget, tho' I do not repine. 
That those eyes are now shrouded in death; 
Which bent with the fondest affection on mine, 
Till my darling resigned her last breath. 

To adore thy Creator in spirit and truth. 
Submissive to bow to His will. 
To the close of thy life from thy earliest youth. 
Thou didst then those duties fulfill. 

To thy favorite beech do I often repair. 
And I kiss on its bark thy dear name; 
To meet thee in heaven is ever my prayer. 
And my last sigh shall murmur the same. 

63 



In spite of the fact that his mother was vigorous to 
an advanced age, Washington wrote: "I am of a short- 
lived family and cannot expect to remain very long upon 
the earth." A few days before his death he pointed out 
to his nephew, Major Lewis, the spot where he intended 
to build the new family vault, saying: "This change I 
shall make the first of all for I may require it before the 
rest." The last entries in his diary are as follows: 
December 12, 1799, "Morning cloudy, wind at N. E. 
and Mer. 33. A large circle round the moon last night. 
About one o'clock it began to snow, soon after to hail and 
then turned to a settled cold rain. Mer. 28 at night. 
13, Morning snowing and about 3 inches deep, wind 
at NE. and Mer. at 30 continued snowing till 1 o'clock 
and about 4 it became perfectly clear, wind in the same 
place but not hard. Mer. 28 at night." These are no 
doubt the last words Washington wrote. The passing 
of this great soul has been described by Tobias Lear, who 
says that, although Washington himself had been in the 
saddle in the storm most of Thursday the twelfth, on the 
evening of which he was stricken with his last illness, he 
considered the weather too bad to send his servant to the 
postoflice. "Between 2 and 3 o'clock on Saturday 
morning he awoke Mrs. Washington and told her he was 
very unwell and had an ague. She would have got up to 
call a servant; but he would not permit her lest she should 
take cold." He lay nearly four hours in a chill in a cold 
bedroom before anything was done or a fire lighted. 
When on his death bed, Washington said to Mr. Lear: 

"I am afraid I shall fatigue you too much; it is a 
debt we must pay to each other, and I hope when you 
want aid of this kind, you will find it." He motioned to 
his attendant, Christopher, who had been standing, to 
take a seat by his bedside. Washington's patience, 
fortitude and resignation never forsook him for a moment. 
He said: "I am not afraid to die, and therefore can bear 

64 



the worst." The clock which was in the death chamber 
marked the hour 10.20 P.M., when December 14, 1799, 
the doctor cut the weights. On the chair by the bedside 
lay the open Bible from which Mrs. Washington had 
been reading aloud. When Mrs. Washington was told 
that her husband was dead, she said: *'Tis well, all is 
now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no more trials 
to pass through." Henry Lee expressed, in a few beauti- 
ful words, Washington's devotion to his wife when he 
said in his celebrated oration: "To the dear object of 
his affections exemplary tender." The attic chamber 
with its sloping roof, which Mrs. Washington occupied 
for two years and a half after her husband's death, and 
where she died, had no fireplace, but from its window 
she could look out on the tomb. Consider how she was 
overwhelmed by its majestic presence at all hours and 
at all seasons; how the white radiance of eternity poured 
upon it as she saw it covered with snow by moonlight. 

George Washington has written beautiful words of 
appreciationof the departed —such, for instance, as have 
been placed on the base of the statue of Franklin in 
Philadelphia. If he had composed an epitaph for Martha 
Washington, he might have expressed himself as Sir 
Thomas Lucy did, for these words that Sir Thomas wrote 
of his wife are exactly applicable to Lady Washington: 

"All the time of her life a true and faithful servant 
of her good God; never detected of any crime or vice; in 
religion most sound ; in love to her husband most faith- 
ful and true; in friendship most constant; to what in 
trust was committed to her most secret; in wisdom ex- 
celling; in governing her house and bringing up of youth 
in the fear of God that did converse with her most rare 
and singular. A great maintainer of hospitality; mis- 
liked of none, unless of the envious. When all is spoken 
that can be said, a woman so furnished and garnished 

65 



with virtue as not to be bettered, and hardly to be 
equalled of any. As she lived most virtuously, so she 
died most godly. Set down by him that best did know 
what hath been written to be true." 

The true American at the tomb of Washington will 
ponder on the glorious heritage he has left us and con- 
sider his own obligation to pass on that heritage unim- 
paired. He will be thrilled by the awful presence of the 
things that are unseen and eternal. Here rests the dust 
of the noblest man who ever lived, and he was great 
because he consecrated all his magnificent powers of 
body, mind and soul to the utmost performance of his 
duty. No surer proof of the Divine guidance of America 
could be required than this — in her times of direst need 
God has never failed to give our country a man equal 
to the emergency, and of all these God-given men the 
first will always be George Washington. He needs no 
stately sepulchre, for he is enshrined in our hearts and 
his monument is our Country. 



66 



THE REGENTS AND VICE-REGENTS OF THE 

MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF 

THE UNION SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION 



MISS ANN PAMELA CUNNINGHAM 

Regent, 1853-1873 

Resigned 1873; died May 1, 1875 

Vice-Regents Appointed 
1858 

1. Mrs. Anna Cora Ogden Ritchie, resigned 1866 Virginia 

2. Mrs. Alice H. Dickinson, resigned 1859 North Carolina 

3. Mrs. Philoclea Edgeworth Eve, died 1889 Georgia 

4. Mrs. Octavia Walton LeVert, died 1877 Alabama 

5. Mrs. Catherine A. MacWillie, died 1872 Mississippi 

6. Mrs. Margaretta S. Morse, resigned 1872 Louisiana 

7. Mrs. Mary Rutledge Fogg, died 1872 Tennessee 

8. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Walton, resigned 1858 Missouri 

9. Miss Mary Norris Hamilton, resigned 1866 New York 

10. Mrs. Louisa Ingersoll Greenough, resigned 1865, Massachusetts 

11. Mrs. Abba Isabella Little, resigned 1866 Maine 

12. Mrs. Catherine WilHs Murat, died 1867 Florida 

13. Mrs. Mary Bootes Goodrich, resigned 1864 Connecticut 

14. Miss Phebe Ann Ogden, died 1867 New Jersey 

15. Mrs. Alice Key Pendleton, resigned 1863, died 1865 Ohio 

16. Mrs. Abby Wheaton Chace, died 1892 Rhode Island 

17. Mrs. Jane Maria Van Antwerp, died Iowa 

18. Mrs. Margaret Ann Comegys, died 1888 Delaware 

19. Mrs. Hannah Blake Farnsworth, died 1879 Michigan 

20. Mrs. Sarah King Hale, resigned 1861 New Hampshire 

21. Mrs. Martha Mitchell, died 1902 Wisconsin 

22. Mrs. Rosa Vertner Johnson Jeffries, died 1894 Kentucky 

Mrs. Janet M, E. Riggs, Acting Vice-Regent, 

District of Columbia 
1859 

23. Mrs. Elizabeth Willard Barry, died 1883 Illinois 

24. Mrs. Sarah J. Sibley, died 1869 Minnesota 

25. Mrs. Mary Pepperell Jarvis Cutts, resigned 1878 Vermont 

26. Miss Lily Lytle Macalester, died 1891 Pennsylvania 

67 



27. Mrs. Magdalen G. Blanding, resigned 1884 California 

28. Mrs. Harriet B. Fitch, died 1880 Indiana 

29. Mrs. Sarah H. Johnson, died 1866 Arkansas 

30. Mrs. Letitia Harper Walker, died 1908 North Carolina 

1860 

31. Mrs. Ann Lucas Hunt, died 1878 Missouri 

32. Mrs. Mary Chestnut, died 1867 North Carolina 

1866 

33. Mrs. Margaret J. M. Sweat, died 1908 Maine 

34. Miss Emily L. Harper, died 1891 Maryland 

35. Mrs. Lucy H. Pickens, died August, 1899 South Carohna 

36. Mrs. M. E. Hickman, resigned 1874 Nevada 

37. Mrs. M. A. Stearns, resigned 1873 New Hampshire 

38. Mrs. Emily R. M. Hewson, resigned 1872 Ohio 

39. Miss EUa Hutchins, resigned 1872 Texas 

1867 

40. Mrs. Janet M. C. Riggs, resigned 1868. . District of Columbia 

41. Mrs. Maria Brooks, resigned 1876 New York 

42. Mrs. Matilda W. Emory, resigned 1873, District of Columbia 

1868 

43. Mrs. Nancy Wade Halsted, died 1891 New Jersey 

44. Mrs. Nannie C. Yulee, died 1884 Florida 

1870 

45. Mrs. Susan E. Johnson Hudson, died 1913 Connecticut 

46. Mrs. Ella Bassett Washington, died 1898 West Virginia 

1872 

47. Mrs. Betsey C. Mason, died 1873 Virginia 

48. Mrs. A. P. Dillon, resigned 1873, died 1898 Iowa 

49. Mrs. C. L. Scott, resigned 1878 Arkansas 

1873 

50. Mrs, William Balfour, resigned 1875 Mississippi 

51. Mrs. Mary T. Barnes, died 1912 District of Columbia 

52. Mrs. David Urquehart, resigned 1876 Louisiana 

53. Miss M. E. Maverick, resigned 1873 Texas 

This was the last appointment of Miss Cunningham, First Regent. 

68 



MRS. LILY M. BERGHMAN 

(Made Acting Regent, 1873, and Regent, June, 1874) 

Second Regent 

Died 1891 

Vice-Regents Appointed 

1874 

54. Mrs. Emma Read Ball, died 1918 Virginia 

55. Mrs. Aaron V. Brown, died 1889 Tennessee 

1875 

56. Mrs. Lily L. Broadwell, died 1889 Ohio 

57. Mrs. John P. Jones, resigned 1876 Nevada 

1876 

58. Mrs. Jennie Meeker Ward, died 1910 Kansas 

59. Mrs. Justine Van Rensselaer Townsend, died 1912. New York 

1878 

60. Mrs. J. Gregory Smith, resigned 1884 Vermont 

1879 

61. Miss Alice M. Longfellow Massachusetts 

62. Mrs. Robert Campbell, died 1882 Missouri 

1880 

63. Mrs. Ida A. Richardson, died 1910 Louisiana 

1882 

64. Mrs. Ella S. Harbert, died 1884 Alabama 

1885 

65. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Adams Rathbone, resigned 1918.. .Michigan 

66. Mrs. Mary T. Leiter, died 1913 Illinois 

67. Mrs. Janet Dekay King, died 1896 Vermont 

68. Mrs. Elizabeth Woodward, died 1897 Kentucky 

1888 

69. Miss Harriet Clayton Comegys Delaware 

70. Mrs. Fannie Gilchrist Baker, died 1901 Florida 

69 



1889 

71. Mrs. Alice Hill, died 1908 Colorado 

72. Mrs. Rebecca B. Flandrau, died 1912 Minnesota 

73. Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, resigned 1918 California 

1890 

74. Mrs. A. R. Winer, died 1906 New Hampshire 

1891 

75; Mrs. Georgia Page Wilder, died 1914 Georgia 

This was the last nomination of Mrs. Lily Macalester Laughton,) 
Second Regent (Madame Berghman), who died 
November 4, 1891. 



MRS. JUSTINE VAN RENSSELAER TOWNSEND 

Third Regent 

(Elected Temporary Regent, December, 1891, and Regent, June, 1892.) 

Resigned May, 1909; died April, 1912 

Vice-Regents Appointed 

1893 

76. Mrs. George R.Goldsborough,resigned 1904, died 1906, Maryland 

77. Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott, died 1894 Pennsylvania 

78. Miss Mary Lloyd Pendleton, resigned 1897 Ohio 

79. Mrs. Philip Schuyler, resigned 1894 New York 

80. Mrs. Christine Blair Graham, died 1915 Missouri 

81. Mrs. Francis S. Conover, died 1914 New Jersey 

82. Mrs. Mary Polk Yeatman Webb, died 1917 Tennessee 

1894 

83. Miss Leila Herbert, died 1897 ; Alabama 

1895 

84. Mrs. Robert H. Clarkson, resigned 1900, died 1902 . . Nebraska 

85. Mrs. William Ames, died 1904 Rhode Island 

86. Miss Amy Townsend, died 1920 New York 

1896 

87. Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison Pennsylvania 

88. Mrs. Thomas S. Maxey Texas 

70 



1897 

89. Mrs. James E. Campbell, resigned 1902 Ohio 

1900 

90. Mrs. Robert D. Johnston Alabama 

91. Mrs. C. F. Manderson, died 1916 Nebraska 

92. Mrs. Eugene Van Rensselaer West Virginia 

1901 

93. Mrs. John Julius Pringle South Carolina 

94. Mrs. William F. Barret (died December 4, 1920) . . Kentucky 

95. Mrs. Charles Denby, died December 26, 1906 Indiana 

1905 

96. Mrs. Henry W. Rogers Maryland 

1907 

97. Mrs. Francis Jones Ricks, resigned 1914 Mississippi 

98. Mrs. Lewis Irwin, died 1915 Ohio 

99. Mrs. J. Carter Brown Rhode Island 

100. Miss Mary F. Failing Oregon 

101. Mrs. Eliza F. Leary Washington 

1909 

102. Mrs. A. B. Andrews, died 1915 North Carolina 

This was the last nomination of Mrs. Justine Van Rensselaer 

Townsend, Third Regent. 



MISS HARRIET CLAYTON COMEGYS 

Fourth Regent 

Elected May, 1909 

Vice-Regents Appointed 
1911 

Mrs. James Gore King Richards Maine 

Miss Mary Evarts Vermont 

Mrs. Antoine Lentilhon Foster Delaware 

1912 

Miss Annie Ragan King Louisiana 

Miss Jane A. Riggs District of Columbia 

71 



1913 

Mrs. Horace Mann Towner Iowa 

Mrs. Thomas P. Denham Florida 

1914 

Miss Harriet L. Huntress New Hampshire 

Mrs. Charles EUiot Fm-ness Minnesota 

Mrs. Benjamin D. Walcott Indiana 

Mrs. Lucien M. Hanks Wisconsin 

1915 

Miss Annie Burr Jennings Connecticut 

Mrs. Willard Hall Bradford New Jersey 

1916 

Mrs. Charles Nagel Missouri 

Mrs. George A. Carpenter Illinois 

Miss Mary Govan Billups Mississippi 

Mrs. John V. Abrahams, resigned 1921 Kansas 

1919 

Mrs. William Ewen Shipp North Carolina 

Mrs. Horton Pope Colorado 

Mrs. Charles J. Livingood Ohio 

Mrs. Jefferson Randolph Anderson Georgia 

Mrs. Celsus Price Perrie Arkansas 

1920 

Mrs. Horace Van Deventer Tennessee 

Mrs. Charles S. Wheeler Cahfornia 

1921 
Mrs. William Ruffin Coxe Virginia 






1 84 

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